BERKELEY, Calif. - Fifth-year senior Kyla Bryant took home three event titles en route to an all-around victory on Sunday, totaling a career-best and NCAA-leading all-around score of 39.675 to lead the Cardinal program to a memorable season-opening performance of 196.275.
The Cardinal faced a half-point score deficit after its first two rotations. Stanford then flipped the script, storming back with incredible performances on beam and floor to nearly record a tie with its Bay Area rival. With the meet tied at the end of television coverage, a last-minute score change for Cal gave them the .05-point victory, topping the Cardinal 196.325-196.275.
Bryant's career-best all-around performance started with a career-best matching performance on bars, scoring a 9.95 to earn the highest score given throughout the meet.
Just one of @kygymnastics's performances of her 39.675 all-around day.
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) January 17, 2022
Highest score of the entire meet with a 9.95 on her bars routine.
Oh, and her all-around score? Leads the NATION (average) & is tied with Utah's McCallum and Michigan's Wojcik for the best this season. pic.twitter.com/MFMAAabA1p
She followed her impressive bars performance with a 9.875 on vault and closed out the meet with scores of 9.925 on both floor and beam.
OH MY KYLA BRYANT. 9.925. WOW.
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) January 16, 2022
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The 2021 Pac-12 Floor champion gotta do what the 2021 Pac-12 Floor Champion gotta do.
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) January 16, 2022
9.925. No surprise here.
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With her efforts Sunday, Bryant, alongside Utah's Grace McCallum and Michigan's Natalie Wojcik, holds the nation's top all-around single-meet score through two weeks of competition.
Freshman Brenna Neault made a lasting impression on the collegiate gymnastics world with her Cardinal debut, opening her collegiate career with scores of 9.75-or-better on all four apparatuses.
A beautiful first pass for Brenna in her floor debut!
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) January 16, 2022
A 9.775 for the freshman to kick off our third rotation.
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Throughout the meet, Stanford saw incredible performances from its specialists. Redshirt senior Isabela Onyshko scored a 9.875 on beam in her debut for the Cardinal while senior Wesley Stephenson also opened her final season for the Cardinal with an incredible performance on beam, scoring a 9.85. Fifth-year Lauren Navarro stepped in as a last-minute switch and recorded scores of 9.75 on vault and beam. Senior Grace Waguespack saw performances of 9.775 and 9.60 on bars and beam, respectively.
Freshman Anapaula Gutierrez saw 9.8+ efforts in her first-ever collegiate meet on both bars and floor.
That's our ?????????? freshman.
— Stanford Gymnastics (@StanfordWGym) January 16, 2022
What a first collegiate performance from AP, scoring a 9.825!
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The Cardinal has just a short six-day break before returning to action on January 22 when it travels to Arizona for a 3 p.m. PT meet with the Wildcats and the Oklahoma Sooners.