Until the end, Janelle McDonald kept dancing.
As she walked down the stairs after UCLA’s final bar routine, with hopes of advancing to the NCAA finals fading quickly with every stuck landing in Utah’s beam lineup, the first-year Bruins coach extended her arms over her head.
“Y-M-C-A,” she spelled out.
McDonald brought the Bruins back to the national stage by rekindling the program’s joyful dynamic that persisted even as the season ended Thursday with a third-place finish at the NCAA semifinals.
UCLA’s Emma Malabuyo competes on the balance beam during the NCAA championship semifinals.
(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
As the Bruins squandered a two-rotation lead, Pac-12 rival Utah finished with a session-winning 198.225, edging out defending champion Oklahoma, which had a 198.1625. UCLA’s 197.9125 was third among the eight semifinalists across both sessions, but Louisiana State and Florida will join the Utes and Sooners in Saturday’s national final.
LSU won the first semifinal with a 197.475 while Florida advanced with a 197.4.
Although the disappointment was raw Thursday, it seemed like a welcome reward after McDonald inherited a program that hadn’t reached nationals since 2019.
“When we started this thing in September and we started to come together as a team, I don’t think anybody in that room thought we would be here,” McDonald said. “They wanted to be, but I don’t think we were the team yet that could be here. So I think they know the work that’s been put in culturally and gymnastically to be able to have the opportunity to compete here. … They’re having joy doing gymnastics again and these are the things I’m most proud of.”
Sophomore Jordan Chiles won national floor and bars titles, highlighted by a 10 on bars that punctuated UCLA’s meet with an exciting finish. But the elation from Chiles’ score was quickly clouded by disappointment. Utah’s Maile O’Keefe scored her own 10 on beam, which pushed Utah past UCLA on the scoreboard.
“They really wanted this,” Chiles said of her teammates. “I saw it in their faces today. … Knowing that they have that in their mindset, the years on, they’re going to be solid, they’re going to be great, they’re going to do whatever they need to. There’s just a lot of mixed emotions, honestly. I wish I could say I’m happy but really deep down, I’m actually really, really sad.”
UCLA’s Jordan Chiles competes on floor exercise during the NCAA gymnastics championship semifinals Thursday.
(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
UCLA’s Margzetta Frazier competes on the uneven bars during the NCAA gymnastics championship semifinals Thursday.
(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
Chiles will not compete at UCLA next year while training for the 2024 Olympics. She is leaving the door open to return to college after, but knows that she won’t be done with McDonald, who she lovingly called “Young Nelly” on Thursday. Chiles told McDonald that whenever she texts her next year, she expects an answer, because she knows she’ll need the coach’s words of wisdom.
“We wouldn’t be where we are right now,” Chiles said, “if it wasn’t for her.”
The Bruins raced out to a lead after two rotations, thanks to the best postseason floor rotation in program history. Emma Malabuyo fought through technical difficulties when her floor music cut out for 10 seconds, but kept dancing and tumbling to a 9.8875.
UCLA’s Chae Campbell competes in the vault at the NCAA championship semifinals.
(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
The Bruins finished with four consecutive scores of 9.9 or better, capped by Chiles’ NCAA-title-winning 9.9875. It gave UCLA a 49.7125 on
the event and a 0.1875-point lead on second-place Oklahoma going into the third rotation.
But the Bruins “got tight” on vault, McDonald said, and totaled just 49.175 points, allowing the Utes and Sooners to jump ahead. Sitting in third place, McDonald gathered her team and told them that they trained for this exact moment, to focus on their details and fight for every tenth.
McDonald smiled when she added afterward that they did.
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