Peng-Peng Lee clinches NCAA title for UCLA gymnastics with perfect 10

UCLA team members celebrate after winning the NCAA women’s gymnastics championship Saturday, April 21, 2018, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

The tears fell before the score came. Watching Christine Peng-Peng Lee does that to her teammates.

The sixth-year senior needed higher than 9.9625 on balance beam to clinch the NCAA championship for UCLA. She didn’t stop at just near-perfect. She was perfect.

Her perfect 10 on the event, her second flawless performance of the night and UCLA’s final routine of the NCAA championship in St. Louis, pushed the Bruins past two-time defending champion Oklahoma and won UCLA’s seventh NCAA title in gymnastics and 115th in school history. UCLA won its first national championship since 2010 by edging out the Sooners, 198.075-198.0375, despite being in fourth place halfway through meet.

“We fought until the end,” Lee said breathlessly on ESPN after learning she won the championship. “We are warriors. Bruins are fighters and this is what the sport is all about. It’s about pressure, it’s about grit, it’s about heart and it’s about love and I love this team so much.”

Lee, a former Canadian national team member who specializes in uneven bars and beam, is known in the sport for her showmanship and high level of difficulty. She starts her beam routine with Homa flares, named after former UCLA gymnast Leah Homa, and is one of few female gymnasts to ever complete the skill that is more often seen in men’s gymnastics. Lee, who also won the individual NCAA beam title Friday, upgrades the required full, 360-degree turn to a double, and after she stuck her dismount Saturday, she blew a kiss to the crowd and clutched her hands to her chest.

When she rejoined her teammates, they engulfed her in hugs. Tears rolled down some of their faces as they waited to see Lee’s score. When the perfect mark flashed across the score card, Lee’s jaw dropped.

“What a gift to our sport,” Bruins head coach Valorie Kondos Field said on ESPN of Lee.

The Bruins’ combined beam score of 49.75 was the highest in school history on the event and came even after sophomore Madison Kocian fell. UCLA avoided disaster with four straight scores of 9.875 or higher, which dropped Kocian’s score from the final tally. After Lee finished her routine, the first teammate she hugged was Kocian, whose eyes were already welling with tears.

UCLA twice avoided having to count a fall as sophomore Kyla Ross also fell on floor, UCLA’s first event of the night. Ross hadn’t scored lower than 9.875 on the event this season, but UCLA still matched its team season average with strong finishing performances from Pauline Tratz, Felicia Hano and Katelyn Ohashi, who each scored higher than 9.8875 to finish the rotation.

Trailing No. 1 Oklahoma by 0.325 points halfway through the meet, the Bruins kick-started their comeback on bars. They scored a 49.6375 on the event, the second-best bars score in Super Six history. UCLA tallied four straight scores of 9.9 or better, including a 9.9375 from Kocian, a 9.95 from Ross and the first of Lee’s two perfect 10s.

Oklahoma scored more than 198 points for the 10th time this season. Its total score Saturday was the highest for any runner-up in NCAA championship history, but the Bruins would not be denied this time.

“This, truly,” Kondos Field told reporters, “was a dream team.”