Feb. 20, 2008
BERKELEY - This Week in California Gymnastics Scouting the Competition In the Gym With Head Coach Barry Weiner Kyle Bunthuwong Named MPSF Player of the Week Last Time at the Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic Buckeye Recap Moving On Up The McNeill Report Former Cal Gymnast Caleb Kirk Wins Scholarship Award
The No. 4 California men's gymnastics team (3-1) will make the short trip to the Oakland Convention Center on Feb. 23 to partake in the Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic. The Golden Bears will face off against No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 Illinois, No. 6 Michigan, and No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 15 Air Force on Saturday evening. Cal is coming off a 355.200-351.000 win at Ohio State on Feb. 16 and will see some of the top gymnasts in the nation at this meet, which will be good preparation for the NCAA Championships in April. The meet will be televised on Fox Sports Net.
The Bears are 1-1 against No. 1 Stanford (9-1) this season after Cal won the first meeting (Jan. 18) at Haas Pavilion but lost to the Cardinal in the second meeting at the Stanford Open (Jan. 26). Bryant Hadden, who set personal bests in five events last weekend, and Eli Alcaraz have excelled recently for the Cardinal. No. 3 Oklahoma had a successful weekend, sweeping all six events and notching its highest score this season in the win on Feb. 16 over No. 10 Iowa. For Air Force, Greg Stine and Jacob Schonig are second and sixth in the nation on rings, respectively. No. 5 Illinois lost by 1.300 points to then-ranked No. 1 Penn State on Feb. 16, but Fighting Illini freshman Paul Ruggeri earned his second consecutive Big Ten Gymnast of the Week accolade this week. Michigan's freshman Thomas Kelley led the Wolverines at the Winter Cup Challenge on Feb. 9, taking 18th place overall while junior Ralph Rosso took 21st on floor.
"We're going to see the best teams in the nation this weekend, and I think we're one of the best teams. I feel really good about our chances. We're trying to be more secure in our routines. I think artistically, our gymnastics is very good, we just have to be consistent. This week, we've been working mostly on our consistency. I think the whole team's going to do well."
California freshman Kyle Bunthuwong was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 19. He won the all-around (88.250) to help California to a win over No. 7 Ohio State on Feb. 16. This is the second time this season that a Cal gymnast has been honored by the MPSF as player of the week with junior Kyson Bunthuwong taking the honor Jan. 21. Bunthuwong set new personal bests on pommel horse (13.950), vault (15.800), parallel bars (14.650) and on high bar (14.800). The El Cerrito, Calif., native paced the Golden Bears on floor with a 15.050, which was good for third place. Bunthuwong took fifth on pommel horse (13.950), but it helped Cal edge Ohio State on the event. His performance on high bar was good for second place and it was important for the Bears so they could take the horizontal bar. Bunthuwong also took second place on vault with a 15.800, which was the best score on vault by California.
The Bears took third (214.750) at the 2007 Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic, finishing behind Oklahoma and Stanford, and had four gymnasts finish in the top 15. Tim McNeill, who turned in a 12th-place finish, won pommel horse (9.150) and parallel bars (9.650). Colin Christ was the top all-around finisher for the Bears, coming in 10th with a final mark of 41.900. Tyler Block finished 13st overall and was sixth on still rings (9.450), eighth on parallel bars (9.200) and tied for eighth on high bar (9.250). Bryan del Castillo's top score came on floor exercise where he tallied a 9.350 for seventh and tied for fourth on vault (9.000).
Cal earned its second dual meet victory of the year with a 355.200-351.000 victory over No. 7 Ohio State on Feb. 16 at OSU's St. John Arena. Freshman Kyle Bunthuwong won the all-around with 88.250, which was 3.800 points ahead of the second place finisher. The Bears (3-1) won pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bar to win the meet. Rings were a highlight for the Bears with senior Tyler Block winning the event with a 15.150. Cal took four of the top six spots on parallel bars to help it win the event, 60.200-58.400. The best event of the night for California was horizontal bar, where five Golden Bears finished in the top six to give Cal the win, 59.700-56.100. Eric Haeussler won his first event of the 2008 campaign with a 15.550 while Kyle Bunthuwong finished in second (14.800).
The Golden Bears are currently ranked fourth in the nation after defeating Ohio State on Feb. 16. Cal's parallel bars team is tops in the country again this week with Tim McNeill holding down the No. 2 individual ranking spot. The pommel horse crew is also first in the nation with McNeill in second and Kyson Bunthuwong occupying seventh place the individual rankings, while Cal's rings and high bar teams are fifth and second, respectively. Cal was tabbed the No. 5 team in the country, according to the College Gymnastics Association's preseason poll.
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
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.
