Men’s Gymnastics Begins 2002 Season in Chicago – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Jan. 9, 2002
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%^$About the Meet
%^$The Ohio State men’s gymnasts will continue their tradition of beginning the regular season at the Windy City Invitational Jan. 12 in Chicago. The meet is hosted by No. 15 Illinois at Chicago and will feature some of the top teams in the country. The invite features five Top 10 ranked teams including, No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Illinois, No. 7 Iowa and No. 8 Iowa.%^$
%^$OSU head coach Miles Avery said the team from up north is the team to beat in the invite.%^$
%^$”The level of competition is tremendous and going into the competition, on paper, Michigan will be the team to beat,” Avery said.%^$
%^$Avery said this competition will help the team reach its ultimate goal of repeating as national champions.%^$
%^$”This is just a stepping stone to the end which is winning the Big Ten and national titles,” Avery said.%^$
%^$”Our main concern is to come out of the meet healthy and not to suffer any setbacks.”%^$
%^$Bhavsar Sitting Out
%^$In keeping with the philosophy of ending the Windy City Invitational healthy junior Raj Bhavsar will not compete at this weekend’s event.%^$
%^$Head coach Miles Avery said that the end goal is the reason for this move.%^$
%^$”We are resting Raj because he needs rest and we need him to be at his best to accomplish our season goals,”Avery said.%^$
%^$”We are not like football but more like a basketball in the sense that we don’t need to win every competition,”%^$
%^$The Captains
%^$At the alumni exhibition this past Saturday head coach Miles Avery announced Ernest Nelson and Raj Bhavsar are the captains of the 2002 season. It is the second time that Nelson has been elected captain by his teammate, and Avery said he can understand why that is.%^$
%^$”His teammates felt he was a good leader, and I can certainly see that they naturally view him as a leader,” Avery said.%^$
%^$Avery said he could see that Bhavsar would eventually become a captain since he came to OSU.%^$
%^$”A lot of the time the best player is a captain because he is the best, but with Raj I could see him mature into a leadership role as a freshman,” Avery said.%^$
%^$”Since his freshman year he has been one of those guys that was willing to get into a guy’s face and say ‘You will hit your next routine.'”%^$
%^$At The Helm
%^$Miles Avery, the 2001 National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year, returns for his fifth season at the helm of the Buckeyes.%^$
%^$Avery was an assistant coach for the Buckeyes for nine seasons before he was named head coach in 1998. In his tenure, the Buckeyes have extended their streak of NCAA appearances to 21.%^$
%^$Another Tough Schedule
%^$The Buckeyes will face many of the top squads in the country throughout the course of the season. The Windy City Invitational features five preseason Top 10 teams, including the Buckeyes. Ohio State, who has not lost a home meet in the past four seasons, will face preseason ranked No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 5 Illinois Feb. 15 in Columbus. It will be one of four competitions the Buckeyes will compete in during the month.%^$
%^$This year the Buckeyes will defend their Big Ten title in Minneapolis as the University of Minnesota plays host to the championships.%^$
%^$The Buckeyes then will travel to Norman, Okla. April 4-6 to try to defend their national crown.%^$
%^$Buckeyes Help U.S. Win Silver
%^$Ohio State men’s gymnast Raj Bhavsar (Jr., Houston, Texas) was part of the U.S. team that earned the silver medal at the 2001 World Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium, Oct. 31. It is the first silver medal ever won by the United States. Ohio State head coach Miles Avery is an assistant coach for the U.S. squad.%^$
%^$Belarus won the gold medal with a score of 169.622, followed by the U.S. with a total of 166.845. Ukraine was third (165.483), followed by France (165.283). Defending Olympic champion China (165.26) was fifth.%^$
%^$The last time the United States won a medal at the world championships was in 1979, when the squad earned bronze in Fort Worth, Texas.%^$
%^$The U.S. team included Bhavsar, Paul Hamm, Stephen McCain, Brett McClure, Sean Townsend and Guard Young. In all, teams from 40 nations competed in the event, which included a qualification round and the finals.%^$
%^$Bhavsar placed 21st in the all-around qualifier (out of 268 gymnasts), posting a score of 53.836. He did not compete in the all-around finals.%^$
%^$”This feels absolutely great,” Bhavsar said. “This has been a superb year for me, winning NCAA’s and then this. I love team meets. Just knowing that we made history here today is unbelievable. It hasn’t even sunken in yet. Bring on the next one in 2003.”%^$
%^$Newcomers
%^$The Buckeyes have turned recruiting into an art form of sorts. The current junior class was widely regarded as the best in the nation and the 2002 freshman class has garnered many comparisons. Randy Monahan (Elizabethtown, Pa./Central Pennsylvania Academy of Gymnastics) becomes the third consecutive Junior Olympic national champion to enter Ohio State. Monahan follows in the tradition of 2000 champion Houle and 1999 champ Bhavsar. Monahan claimed the title after posting an all-around score of 54.150 in the championship.%^$
%^$Freshman teammate Kerry Adderly (Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro Gymnastics) placed 18th in the J.O. competition, but is widely considered to be one of the top college prospects in the nation. Another member of the freshman class is Cody Trobaugh (Houston, Texas/Houston Gymnastics Academy). Trobaugh will be reunited with Evans, his former club teammate.%^$
%^$”Those three freshmen are extremely talented,” Avery said. “They’ll be fighting over who will contribute the most, which can only help our team. It’ll be fun to work with this much talent.”%^$
%^$Two freshmen gymnasts from the Columbus area, Phil McClellan (Amanda, Ohio/Hocking Valley Gymanstics Center) and Tim Saxton (Pickerington, Ohio/Hocking Valley Gymnastics Center), also will join the Buckeyes this season. Their squad captured the state and regional championships last season.%^$
