{"id":657076,"date":"2026-03-15T09:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657076\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T09:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T09:17:16","slug":"ucla-star-jordan-chiles-bruins-beat-utah-during-her-home-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/657076\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA star Jordan Chiles, Bruins beat Utah during her home finale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The UCLA<\/a> gymnastics team bid farewell to its seniors in a 197.850-197.400 win over rival Utah during the Bruins finale at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 13,089, a new school attendance record.<\/p>\n

Jordan Chiles<\/a>, an Olympic gold medalist, brought back a nostalgic floor routine set to \u201890s R&B hits to the delight of fans and won the meet\u2019s all-around crown with a score of 39.800. <\/p>\n

Bruins coach Janelle McDonald described the energy in Pauley as \u201cmagic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes us really proud to represent UCLA and to be out here competing at this level against a really great team,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiana Sumanasekera started the night with a 9.750 off the vault. Mika Webster-Longin scored a 9.900 mark and Riley Jenkins followed it a 9.900. Ashley Sullivan scored a 9.975, receiving a 10 from one of the judges and earning her first victory as a Bruin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this was definitely a long time coming,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201c… I was trying to find that sweet spot of what zone do I need to be in mentally and physically to go into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald hyped up fans right before Chiles\u2019 9.950 to close off the rotation, giving UCLA a slim 0.050 lead over Utah.<\/p>\n

On the bars, Ciena Alipio opened the event with a 9.850. Webster-Longin followed it with a 9.875. Despite landing off balance, Matthews added a 9.850. Sullivan followed with a 9.900. And McDonald twirled as Chiles landed on the mat to close her routine, earning a 9.950.<\/p>\n

\"Ashlee <\/p>\n

Ashlee Sullivan celebrates after completing a vault that earned a score of 9.975 during a meet against Utah at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, March 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

(Jesus Ramirez \/ UCLA Athletics)<\/p>\n

Utah inched closer off the vault, closing out the second rotation trailing UCLA by 0.025.<\/p>\n

Needing a big performance on beam, Barros set the tone with a 9.825. Webster-Longin recovered after losing balance during her performance to score a 9.800.<\/p>\n

Sidelined because of an injury, Katelyn Rosen started a \u201c10\u201d chant with the audience after Sumanasekera landed a 9.900. Chiles\u2019 teammates and the crowd cheered for a 10 after her performance, then fans booed when the judges\u2019 score of 9.950 was revealed.<\/p>\n

Alipio closed the rotation in tears, finishing with a 9.925 score. McDonald questioned the score with a judge, a sentiment shared by the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to have the support of the crowd and just know that they are 100% behind me, but at the end of the day, I did what I could,\u201d Alipio said. \u201cI put up my best routine I had tonight and I honestly couldn\u2019t be more proud of my last beam routine in Pauley.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the meet, McDonald said she was curious to see what the judge had seen in the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t always agree with every score, and that\u2019s the nature of the sport,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWe focus on the things that we can\u2019t control and get feedback with routine summaries to see, \u2018OK, what are you guys seeing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA moved to the floor exercise with a 148.300-148.125 lead after Clara Raposo for Utah was unable to finish her routine on floor because of an injury.<\/p>\n

Alipio capped her senior night with a 9.800. Webster-Longin followed with a 9.875. Barros delivered a 9.900 score and Sumanasekera finished with a 9.925.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, who\u2019s become the set-up for the anchor, earned a 9.900 on floor. Performing her routine from sophomore year, Chiles closed the meet with a 9.950 and held back tears while getting mobbed by her teammates.<\/p>\n

The Bruins will next travel to Champaign, Ill., to compete in the Big Ten Conference championship meet.<\/p>\n

With every remaining meet on the road this season, Alipio is not worried the team will lose its edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnergy is energy,\u201d Alipio said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s positive or negative, we can flip it around and use it to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiles is equally confident in the team\u2019s ability to win anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bring Pauley everywhere. I am Pauley,\u201d Chiles said. \u201c \u2026 The music, the vibes, the everything \u2014 we are Pauley and I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s so easy for us to walk into an arena and look at [it] and be like, \u2018You know what, this is our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re the best show in L.A.,\u201d she added, \u201cwe can be the best show in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UCLA gymnastics team bid farewell to its seniors in a 197.850-197.400 win over rival Utah during the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":657077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[278442,32072,1582,276,278440,4537,1888,109934,6616,2961,224,5337,15772,278439,11636,194955,5968,278441,2501,424],"class_list":["post-657076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-big-performance","tag-bruins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-ciena-alipio","tag-crowd","tag-fan","tag-jordan-chiles","tag-judge","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mcdonald","tag-mika-webster-longin","tag-rotation","tag-routine","tag-score","tag-tiana-sumanasekera","tag-ucla","tag-utah"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116232446256867913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}