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.