STANFORD, Calif. – No. 22 Stanford closed its home season with a bang Sunday, recording the second-best team score in program history against No. 2 California in the final Pac-12 edition of the Big Meet.
The Cardinal fell to the Golden Bears 198.550-197.975 in the dual meet, securing an outright regular-season conference title for California for the first time in its program history.
The meet was highlighted by the first 10.000 score by a Stanford gymnast since April 20, 2018, as fifth-year Chloe Widner anchored the beam rotation with a perfect performance. Widner also added a new career-best score on floor of 9.975 and added a 9.925 on bars. The Frisco, Texas native earned a share of the beam and floor titles with her career-best performances.
California was led by eMjae Frazier and Mya Lauzon, finishing first and second in the all-around with scores of 39.825 and 39.775, respectively. Lauzon earned a 10.000 on beam in the final rotation.
Stanford recorded season-high team scores on bars, beam and floor en route to its final total, over a point better than any other result this season. The Cardinal's beam total of 49.675 was its best since Feb. 20, 2004, when Stanford recorded the still-standing NCAA team record total score of 198.875.
The day started strong with the team's second-best vault total of the year. Senior Amanda Zeng made the night celebrating her collegiate career count with a new career-best score of 9.875. Zeng's score was the rotation's best total and later was matched by junior Anapaula Gutierrez in the five spot. Sophomore Taralyn Nguyen added a 9.850 while fellow sophomore Anna Roberts posted a 9.800. Both sophomore Claire Dean and junior Brenna Neault each added scores of 9.775.
Stanford then went to bars where the season-high event totals kicked off. The Cardinal earned a 49.525 on bars led by scores of 9.925 by senior Ira Alexeeva and Widner. Gutierrez led off with a 9.900 and sophomore Ava Sorrento followed with the same score, a new career-high for the Toronto, Ontario, Canada native. Neault rounded out the lineup with a 9.875.
The Cardinal then took to the beam and put on a rotation that the program had not seen in over 20 years. Led by Widner's perfect score, the first on beam for the Cardinal since Feb. 20, 2004, Stanford saw three more scores throughout the rotation of 9.950-or-better– a 9.975 from Alexeeva and scores of 9.950 from Neault and freshman Sienna Robinson. All three performances matched or set career-best efforts. Nguyen added the final scoring performance with a 9.800.
Stanford ended the meet on the floor with its most complete event of the day, scoring a team total of 49.600 led by Widner's event title winning 9.975. Neault added a career-best matching 9.925 while Nguyen set a new career-best score with a 9.925. Zeng matched her career-best performance with a 9.900 while Roberts and Dean each posted scores of 9.875.
The Cardinal takes to the road for the rest of the season, finishing the regular season with a two-meet weekend at Utah for a tri-meet with Utah State March 15 and at Cal for a tri-meet with Sacramento State March 17.
