The Time Of Her Life! UCLA Senior Ciena Alipio Has Answered The Call

UCLA senior star Ciena Alipio is having the NCAA season and gymnastics year of her life. 

Under the lights and in the marquee moments, she’s hit all 23 routines in 2026, has been named the Big Ten Event Specialist of the Week three times, and is a 2026 AAI Award nominee. Passionate for gymnastics with a zest for life and her UCLA community, what makes this season even more special for Alipio is that she’s completely healthy and doing her best gymnastics ever. Competing only beam for her first three seasons with the Bruins, Alipio has become a three-event star as a senior.

The reigning queen of the beam in the Big Ten, Alipio, who won the 2025 Big Ten Championships on beam with a perfect 10.0, is once again at the top of the Big Ten rankings on the event. She’s also currently ranked fourth in the country with a season-high 9.975 and a 9.950 National Qualifying Score (NQS), and leads her team with six individual beam victories. 

​On Saturday night in historic Pauley Pavilion against longtime rival No. 12 Utah, Alipio will celebrate her senior season with her teammates and the fans she loves so much. In the dream department, scoring a 10.0 on beam at home could tie a perfect bow on her career and spark even more confidence as she and her regular season Big Team Champion and current No. 5 Bruins head into postseason hungry for the title they came close to capturing in 2025, where they finished second to the seven-time National Champion Oklahoma Sooners. 

​First things first, though. 

Saturday’s meet marks the final home meet for Bruin seniors Alipio, Madisyn Anyimi, Jordan Chiles, and Carissa Clay, who will be honored in post-meet Senior Day ceremonies. Together, the class has won four conference team championships and earned a runner-up finish at the 2025 NCAA Championships. They have combined for 18 All-America honors, 18 perfect 10s, 10 all-conference awards, and seven Scholastic All-America awards. 

As Alipio chalks up in Pauley, she’ll be reminded of each moment, each memory, and exactly how her passion for the sport, a supportive circle of teammates, coaches and alumni, and a newfound trust in herself translated into accomplishing more than she ever dreamed possible. It’s been a joy to watch her confidence and momentum soar to new heights in the last year, and to see her realize her goals on the NCAA’s largest stage.

The Best Time’s Right Now

In a gymnastics career she could have easily chosen to slow down or stop given multiple injuries and her sometimes wavering confidence, Alipio chose to make her final year her best, striving to make lineups on multiple events, and to finish NCAA gymnastics with absolutely no regrets. So far, she’s batting one thousand.

“At the end of last season, I had already talked to the coaches, and I told them I want to do everything I can next year,” Alipio told us in late January. “I want to step up for the team and be someone you can count on, not only on beam, but on other events as well. When they heard that I was ready to buy into everything that encompassed, we knew what we wanted and could achieve.”

Held back by injuries during her freshman and sophomore campaigns, Alipio finally started to feel healthy during 2025, which also allowed her mindset to shift and believe in bigger goals for herself, and ones that would ultimately further benefit her team. Throughout the summer and preseason, she thought about what she wanted her senior year to look like. What her goals were, what her dreams were, and what would ultimately be her legacy as a Bruin.

The turning point for Alipio was the realization that she didn’t have to compare herself to anyone else or put on any extra pressure. If she competed free, if she competed her gymnastics her way, she’d succeed. Feeling healthy, of course, was also key. 

“Honestly, last year was the first year that I was 100% healthy the entire year. After that, it wasn’t a matter of whether I could do it. Or, will it happen? It was, ‘I’m going to make it happen.’ My freshman year and sophomore year, there were injuries here and there, and that really did limit me to beam. At the end of last year, I thought, I don’t see why I can’t try for not only beam, but also bars and floor,” she said. “That’s when the mindset switch happened.

“When I talked to the coaches, they said, ‘You know what? You’re right. There’s no reason we can’t try. As long as you feel good, your body’s feeling good, that’s our main priority.’” 

Together, her coaches developed a plan, working on Alipio’s confidence as much or more her than actual gymnastics in order to give her every tool and opportunity to achieve her goal of breaking into the lineups beyond beam. “We came up with a plan of what summer was going to look like for me and what training throughout preseason was going to look like. And then I think everyone felt a lot better letting me just go for it,” Alipio said. “There wasn’t anything holding me back. I wanted to give everything I have to this last season.”

In January, UCLA Head Coach Janelle McDonald described Alipio as a warm hug, noting her enthusiasm day in and day out, the growth in her leadership skills, and the ultra-positive influence and caring she shows each of her teammates as one of her favorite pieces of Alipio’s character. She also noted Alipio’s confidence is soaring and making all the difference to her gymnastics.

“Ciena has always been an incredibly hard worker,” McDonald said. “And now she has the confidence in her gymnastics to really set a great example.” 

Starting from the moment she stepped on the floor during the season opener on January 3 at the Best of the West Quad against Cal, Oregon State, and Washington, Alipio answered the call. 

She scored 9.925 on beam and also hit a 9.800 on her floor exercise exhibition. At the Sprouts Collegiate Challenge a week later on January 10, she went 9.925 on beam to push UCLA to a 49.125 on the event, and scored a 9.800 in her floor debut, further setting the pace for the season she always imagined she could have. Against Michigan State, she made her collegiate debut on bars and hit for a 9.875 to tie for third place.

Trust Translates To Confidence

Feeling the confidence and trust from her teammates to anchor a lineup or jump in at any moment when the call comes means the world to Alipio and has paid dividends, especially when she steps on the beam. She sees her growth and belief in herself on that event from her freshman season to now, showing up in training and her performances. 

“Freshman and sophomore year, the first few meets every single season, I was like, I know I can make this beam routine, but the nerves were so overwhelming,” Alipio said. “Whereas last year, being in that fifth spot on beam, I was like, everybody trusts me. Their unwavering trust speaks volumes. The confidence piece on beam has skyrocketed. I am very much just in the zone, focused on what I have to get done. Now, it’s all about having fun. Going out there and doing what I love. That has also helped my confidence a lot because at the end of the day, I care so much about this team and I love gymnastics so much.”

Alipio’s arsenal this season includes a floor routine she absolutely loves. And you can feel that love to the top of the rafters in every performance. Freeze frame any moment of the routine, and Alipio is one hundred percent engaged in the movement and artistry. Set to music from Florence & the Machine and Sia, she said of the routine’s creative process, “As BJ (Das) and I were putting it together, I thought, this is going to be the best routine I’ve had in my gymnastics career.

“When we first started choreographing the routine, we spent almost two hours just figuring out the first section of the routine before my first pass, because BJ told me, ‘We’re not moving on until you love it, I love it, and it’s perfect’. We played with so many different options and variations of what we have now. Once we had that first corner down right before my first pass, everything just started to flow after that. When we finished it, I thought, this is really embodying that last solo vibe that we were really going for. It truly did come out. It was better than I could have even imagined. It’s perfect. I absolutely love it.”

Becoming The Bruin Legacy

Competing in this era of women’s NCAA gymnastics and as part of a legacy program—UCLA has won seven national titles—Alipio loves how many people are watching, the ever-increasing spotlight on women’s sports, and how many younger athletes out there are being inspired by what women athletes have been able to accomplish.

“I honestly am just very excited that so many people are watching,” Alipio said. “I think it’s an amazing opportunity. Just to go out there and just show everyone, women’s college gymnastics is just as important as any other college sport. I think being in the middle of it right now is just really cool. I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”

With all the notoriety comes higher expectations and a greater spotlight, as well as a multitude of NIL opportunities, for many student athletes. Alipio said her most important advice for future Bruins, or anyone pursuing NCAA athletics, is to take their time and never to settle.

“I think a lot of schools are going to give you very flashy tours and tell you all the amazing things that they can offer,” she said. “At the end of the day, while those things are amazing and you will benefit a lot from that, if you’re not 100% loving every single aspect of the school, I can guarantee that when you get there, those things are going to get amplified. When I came to UCLA, I really did feel at home here. I could see myself doing so many different things here and not just focusing on gymnastics. There will be a school that can offer you everything you want and more, while also feeling like home. I don’t think you have to choose one or the other.”

Being part of UCLA gymnastics and the university community, both on and off the competition floor, is also something that Alipio truly treasures and said has made her a better athlete and person.

“Being around the amount of national championships every single team at this school has won, all of athletics is so bought in to just producing not just great athletes, but great people,” Alipio said. “That really is a testament to what we stand for as a whole, and has shaped my time here as well. It’s been amazing to see my personal growth over the past couple of years. I think if you had told me where I would be from my freshman year until now, I don’t think I would have believed you.”

Alipio is quick to mention that the support from alumni and the connections they have are the most special things about being a Bruin to her. She knows it’s something she’ll have no matter where her next chapter leads.  

“We are always talking about the legacy of the UCLA Gymnastics program, and that legacy wouldn’t be possible without our alumni. They want to see us happy, doing what we love, and continuing what they laid the foundation for. I think it’s honestly awesome because they come into the gym sometimes and are like, ‘Hey, is there anything you need?’ We’re here to support you with no matter, with anything, no matter what. I have built so many connections with our alumni that they honestly just feel like a second support system. Because they’re also our biggest cheerleaders.”

Embracing The Moment

On Saturday, Alipio will perform in Pauley Pavilion for the last time during the regular season, and no doubt there will be tears, joy, laughter, and celebration, alongside quiet moments of reflection.

“My biggest personal goal is to just enjoy it,” she said, “I can’t get so caught up in how fast everything is moving and how much school I have and how stressed I can get throughout season. At the end of the day, I’m only really ever going to be this stressed again right now, so I’m enjoying that this is my last year of gymnastics, but also my last year on this team, and just embracing every single moment.”

Always at the forefront of Alipio’s mind is her teammates. It’s been that way right from the start and will be again on Saturday. It’s part of the legacy she wants to leave, she said.

“I am so excited for what this team has in store for us. This team has been working so hard nonstop since the beginning of preseason. I have seen them push themselves harder than I ever expected. It’s been honestly incredible to see.

“That idea of just putting your head down, working, and not giving up in times when I very much could have just been like, You know what? It’s not my time. I could have redshirted in my freshman year, but that was not an option for me. It wasn’t even a thought that crossed my mind. I really, truly was just like, no, I’m giving this team everything I have. I only get four years here, and that’s what’s important to me. I was so committed to giving everything I had. I just want what’s best for this team. I am going to give 110% every single day. 

“Putting my head down was my biggest form of leadership the past three years. This year, I have definitely taken on a more vocal leadership role. That’s something that I want to be remembered for, is just not letting small or large injuries define me, but also the amount of work and just unwavering love I have for the team.”

While the rest of Alipio’s incredible gymnastics journey is yet to be written, one thing is for certain. Saturday, she’ll be smiling, she’ll be celebrating, and she’ll be having the time of her life.

N0. 5 UCLA HOSTS NO. 12 UTAH SATURDAY NIGHT    

No. 5 UCLA (14-2) will host No. 12 Utah (13-3) in the Bruins’ final home meet of the season on Saturday, March 14 at 7:30pm in Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom. The meet will be televised live on Big Ten Network. 

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