Margzetta Frazier Returning to UCLA Gymnastics For Super Senior Year

The three-time All-American is coming back to Westwood after missing most of 2022 due to injury.

The Bruins are getting one of their most accomplished veterans back for the 2023 season.

UCLA gymnastics announced Monday that Margzetta Frazier would be returning to Westwood for her fifth season with the program. The three-time All-American missed most of the 2022 campaign due to a foot fracture, but was one of the Bruins' most consistent top-level contributors across her first three collegiate seasons.

"I am so thrilled to announce my super senior year at UCLA," Frazier said in a statement released by the team. "Being able to further contribute to the legacy that is UCLA Gymnastics is an incomparable honor. Not only am I continuing my education at the Number One public school in the nation, but I get to keep bleeding blue and gold on the competition floor with the team that I love so much."

Frazier arrived at UCLA ahead of the 2019 season and she immediately broke out as an elite performer on the uneven bars. Maxing out at 9.950 and never dipping below 9.800 on the event, Frazier made the All-American First Team on bars as a true freshman.

Taking on all-around duties in 2020, Frazier placed second in two events and fifth in another. An ankle injury restricted her to bars for the rest of the season, and she made the most of the situation by breaking 9.900 on every single routine and making the All-American Second Team.

Frazier returned to the all-around full-time in 2021, earning First Team All-Pac-12 honors in both that and uneven bars – where she also returned to the All-American First Team. On top of all the high scores, in-meet accomplishments and 44 consecutive hits, Frazier also went viral for her Janet Jackson floor routine that season, continuing the tradition started by Katelyn Ohashi, Nia Dennis and other elite Bruins.

𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒴𝑒𝒶𝓇

3-time All-American and 2021 @pac12 uneven bars co-champion @MBFDoom returns for her fifth season! pic.twitter.com/BQ90Mflk0k

— UCLA Gymnastics (@uclagymnastics) August 15, 2022

Frazier ran into several road blocks early in the 2022 season, injuring her foot in the very first meet of the year. UCLA posted its lowest team score in seven years that day, and it took the Bruins months to recover in the rankings.

Not long after the season opener, rumors started to surface about racial slurs being used by a former UCLA gymnast that sparked a disconnect between the roster, coaching staff and administration. Frazier was one of several student-athletes who spoke out publicly against coach Chris Waller, taking to Twitter and appearing on podcasts to call for him to be fired.

Frazier has served on the Pac-12 Gymnastics diversity & inclusion organization G-PAC for the past two years, and is a co-founder of UCLA’s Black Student-Athlete Alliance. 

Waller did eventually resign at the end of the season, and the Bruins hired former Cal assistant Janelle McDonald to replace him.

Frazier will be one of the headliners on McDonald's roster, with Jordan Chiles, Chae Campbell, Emma Malabuyo and Brooklyn Moors highlighting the rest of the returning faces. Norah Flatley, who came to UCLA alongside Frazier, also had an extra year of eligibility to burn, but she decided to transfer to Arkansas instead of returning to Westwood.

UCLA has not made the NCAA Championship Final since coach Valorie Kondos Field left the program in 2019, but the 2023 squad will surely have its sights set on winning the team's eighth national title with Frazier helping to lead the way.

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