Cal Women's Gym Advances to NCAA Regional Finals

The 14th-seeded Cal women’s gymnastics team, led by freshman Tonya Paulsson, finished second in its quad competition on Thursday night to advance to the Saturday finals of the NCAA West Regional championships.

The Bears scored 196.675 points to finish behind third-seeded Florida, which posted a mark of 198.125. The top two among the four teams competing moved on in the meet at Tempe, Ariz.

*** Cal coach Geralen Stack-Eaton talks in the video above about what it will mean for next season with all-around stars Annalise Newman-Achee and Tonya Paulsson expected to return.

Three Cal gymnasts combined to post five 9.90 event scores — regular-season All-American Paulsson on the bars, floor exercise and balance beam, CJ Keuneke on floor exercise and Casey Brown in vault.

Junior Annalise Newman-Achee, also a regular-season All-America selection, scored 9.875 on the bars while Kyen Mayhew logged the same mark in floor exercise.

Florida was led by Skye Blakely, who scored a perfect 10.00 on the bars.

No. 11 Michigan State outscored No. 6 Georgia 197.350 to 197.125 to win the early session, with both teams advancing to Saturday. BYU (196.250) Southern Utah (195.725) finished third and fourth and were sidelined.

The top two finishers in the West finals qualify for the NCAA nationals, April 16 and 18 in Fort Worth.

The Bears were expected to get through Thursday’s competition but they will have to beat at least two of three higher-seeded teams on Saturday to advance.

First-year Cal coach Geralen Stack-Eaton said earlier this week the Bears will need a special performance to stay alive and advance to the eight-team NCAA Championships.

“If we have the best meet of our life, I do think there is a possibility,” she said. “But I think other teams do feel the stress a little bit more of they have to move on because they’re expected. Where we’re just going out there and continuing to get our half-tenth better from every person.

“As long as we put everything out on the floor and know we did everything we possibly could, then we’re going to be really happy for this year.”

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