No. 3 Cal Visits No. 7 Ohio State - CAL OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

Feb. 12, 2008

BERKELEY - This Week in California Gymnastics
The No. 3 California men's gymnastics team travels to Columbus, Ohio to take on No. 7 Ohio State in a nonconference dual meet Saturday at the St. John Arena at 4 p.m. PST. It will be the first team competition since Jan. 26 when the Golden Bears took second in the Stanford Open. Seven members of the Cal squad are fresh off a trip to Las Vegas last weekend where they participated in the Winter Cup Challenge with the top gymnasts in the nation.

Winter Cup Replay
Six Bears advanced to the final of the Winter Cup Challenge last weekend in Las Vegas, but none of the six received automatic selection U.S. Senior National Team based on their performances in the finals on Saturday night. Freshman Kyle Bunthuwong finished 24th in the all-around, senior Tim McNeill took third overall on pommel horse and junior Kyson Bunthuwong fished fifth on the horizontal bar. Junior Evan Roth put forth the best performance for the Bears on rings with a 29.350 (13th overall) after two days of competing. Senior Colin Christ best event was parallel bars, where he finished in 10th with a two-day score of 29.350. Senior Tyler Block finished the competition with a 28.100 on rings (21st) and a 27.300 on horizontal bar (19th).

Last Time Against the Buckeyes
Last year, then-ranked No. 7 Cal defeated then-third-ranked Ohio State, 213.000-212.300, at Haas Pavilion. The Bears won high bar and rings and the Buckeyes won the other four events, but they were all by a close margin, and it was the victory on high bar that set the Bears apart to earn the win. Cal holds the all-time advantage, 13-11, but have split the past four meetings with the Buckeyes.

Scouting the Buckeyes
Ohio State (4-5 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) was upset by No. 9 Temple, but beat No. 11 Navy in its last meet Feb. 2. Select Buckeyes also participated in the Winter Cup Challenge with junior Jake Bateman taking 13th in the all-around after the finals while Eddie Hay and Sean Regan took part in the qualifying round last Thursday. OSU is in the top 10 in the nation on five events and has three gymnasts in the top 10 individual rankings. OSU's best event is floor exercises (sixth in the national standings) while Jimmy Wickham is third on vault and Jake Bateman is 10th in the all-around.

In the Gym With Head Coach Barry Weiner
"We just want to get people healthy. We're pretty chipped up on floor and vault. We want to get guys healthy so we took a light week. Tim's doing a little more. He tumbled a little today, and we haven't seen him tumble in years, and did a little bit of rings. We might see Tim adding rings this weekend, and ultimately by the Pacific Coast Classic, maybe even more event. We're trying to get people back to full health and get people rested who are sore."

Setting New Records
NCAA men's gymnastics moved to the Federation of International Gymnastics) International Scoring System this season and the Golden Bears have wasted no time in setting new personal records. Last weekend, freshman Kyle Bunthuwong had a career best of 13.350 on pommel and junior Kyson Bunthuwong tied his best on vault (15.550). At the Stanford Open, senior Tyler Block set a personal best on rings (15.750) and parallel bars (15.250) as did Tim McNeill with a 15.750 on p-bars. Junior Evan Roth's 15.700 on vault at the Winter Cup preliminaries propelled him into the finals and set a new career high.

Moving On Up
The Golden Bears are currently ranked third in the nation after defeating Nebraska on Jan. 26 and top-ranked Stanford on Jan. 18. Cal's parallel bars team is tops in the country with Tim McNeill and Colin Christ tied for third. The pommel horse crew is also first in the nation with McNeill in second and Kyson Bunthuwong holding third place the individual rankings, while Cal's rings and high bar teams are third and second, respectively. Cal was tabbed the No. 5 team in the country, according to the College Gymnastics Association's preseason poll.

Kyson Bunthuwong Named Jan. 22 Player of the Week
Junior Kyson Bunthuwong won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's Player of the Week and Cal's Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week awards for the week of Jan. 22. Bunthuwong won the all-around with his score of 88.45 on Jan. 18, to help Cal beat rival and then-top-ranked Stanford. It was Cal's first meet victory over the Cardinal since 2005. This is the first time since 2006 that a Bear has been honored by the MPSF as player of the week.

The McNeill Report
Senior and three-time NCAA Champion Tim McNeill will be updating a blog this season. In his entries, McNeill gives updates regarding the happenings of the men's gymnastics team as the Bears progress through the season. To read McNeill's blog, go to the men's gymnastics page on CalBears.com

Former Cal Gymnast Caleb Kirk Wins Scholarship Award
Caleb Kirk, a four-year letter winner on the Cal gymnastics team, was awarded the Pac-10 Conference's Living the Dream Scholarship, it was announced Jan. 17. The award recognizes student-athletes who participated on their school's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and also demonstrated leadership outside of athletics, and the winners receive $5,000 for post-graduate study. Kirk helped lead the team to its highest event score at the 2007 NCAA Championships when he posted a 9.45 on rings, which equaled his career high.