Willis Wins All-Around Title

UCLA sophomore Onnie Willis became the school’s first all-around champion at the NCAA women’s gymnastics meet Thursday, while the Bruins remained on course for a second consecutive team championship.

The Bruins (197.625) were the highest-scoring team of the two qualifying sessions, followed by host Georgia (197.100).

Willis tied Michigan freshman Elise Ray for the all-around title with 39.525 points.

Willis scored no lower than 9.850 in the four disciplines, winning a title that had been predicted for senior teammate Mohini Bhardwaj, who was runner-up in the all-around a year ago and ranked No. 1 in the country heading to the national meet.

“It’s amazing,” Willis said. “My goal was to place in the top five. I’m very honored to be UCLA’s first NCAA all-around champion.”

The Bruins bolstered their championship team with Jamie Dantzscher and Kristen Maloney, both members of the U.S. Olympic team, and Yvonne Tousek, who competed for Canada.

UCLA had no major blunders, scoring at least 9.700 on all of its routines.

“This is the first time all year that we went 24 of 24 [on routines], and that was nice to see,” UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “Hopefully, we are peaking at the right time.”