Cal locked down a win against Sacramento State and San Jose State by a substantial margin this past weekend, its largest point gap in the 2026 season so far.

Multiple Bears performed their season bests, and Cal took home first place in all events except for vault.

Despite winning the meet considerably, the Bears underperformed on vault compared to the Hornets and the Spartans. With a score of 49.0250, they trailed San Jose State by 0.0200 and Sacramento State by 0.1200.

Senior Jayden Silvers, junior Kyen Mayhew and sophomore Mya Wiley placed third with a 9.8250. For Silvers and Wiley, these marked new high scores.

“(We) set aside any adversity, or (we) lean into it and … use that as a driving source to push us through the meet and give us fire,” said senior Miki Aderinto.

The blue and gold utilized this mindset and did not let their difficulties during vault dictate how the rest of their meet would go.

All six Bears dominated their bar routines, taking first through sixth place. Freshman Tonya Paulsson secured first place with a new high score of 9.9500.

New to the team, Paulsson leads Cal on uneven bars, floor and all-around.

Paulsson continued these strides during the meeting, taking first in floor with a 9.9250. Sophomore CJ Keuneke and Mayhew followed suit with second and third. With three Bears sweeping the podium, the floor was the second-best event of their weekend.

A large contributor to Cal’s success is the team’s precision and attention to detail.

“We really work on trying to do really good, clean gymnastics,” Aderinto said.

However, the Bears’ thoroughness fell short during the balance beam, where they faltered compared to San Jose State and Sacramento State.

Junior Annalise Newman-Achee clutched up for the team and won beam with a 9.9500 — a score markedly higher than her teammates.

Newman-Achee’s performance also earned her a 10 from one of the judges and a new personal best.

While Cal did not achieve its goal of breaking 197 points, it demonstrated perseverance and camaraderie by securing a win despite a rocky start.

“My strength is connecting with everyone and having so much fun because that helps us take our mind off the seriousness of the meet and nerves that could distract us from doing really well,” Aderinto said.

The Bears will carry the energy from this win into their next competition against Boise State on Saturday.

Cal last faced the Broncos a decade ago during the NCAA Regional in 2016, where it won the tournament and qualified for the NCAA Championships — the second time in UC Berkeley history.

Currently, Boise State ranks No. 46 and will compete with Cal coming off a three-meet win streak, which includes victories of its own against San Jose State and Sacramento State.

The Broncos are 8-10 overall with a 1-4 away record. Unfortunately for them, the matchup will take place at the Haas Pavilion.

With many years in between these teams competing, this meet presents an interesting opportunity for the teams to demonstrate how much they’ve grown over the decade.

As always, the Bears’ goals for the meet are to stay present and grounded as they compete.

“Goals and aspirations are like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the rainbow is just as beautiful,” Aderinto said.