No. 2 Men’s Gymnasts Prepare For Final Home Meet – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/7/2002 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
March 7, 2002
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%^$COLUMBUS, Ohio–No. 2 Ohio State (5-4) will play host to No. 5 Iowa and No. 6 Minnesota Saturday March 9 at 7 p.m.%^$
%^$Ohio State head coach Miles Avery said right now his team is mainly concerned about its performances rather than what its score.%^$
%^$”It is all about the performance,” Avery said. “You have no control over what the judges see and what they give you, but you do have control of what you doing.”%^$
%^$SENIOR NIGHT
%^$ Saturday will mark the final home meet for three members of the OSU squad. Seniors Earnest Nelson, Ben Falkner and Mitch Claman step on to St. John’s Arena floor one last time.%^$ Nelson, a two time captain, brings one of the most important attributes to a team, leadership.%^$
%^$ “We haven’t had very many two-time captains in this program, which has been around since 1922, so it is quite an accomplishment for him to be seen as that caliber of a leader,” head coach Miles Avery said.%^$
%^$ Avery said Claman has come a long way from his walk-on status.%^$
%^$”Mitch is having a career year for himself,” Avery said. “It is great to see him come up to the level were the team can count on him week in and week out.”%^$
%^$ Avery classifies Falkner as one of the team’s hardest workers.%^$
%^$ “Ben Falkner has been training hard in the gym every single day, as one of our hardest workers in the gym,” Avery said.%^$
%^$BATTLE FOR BIG TEN FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
%^$ Friday night will also feature the future of Big Ten gymnastics as OSU’s freshman Randy Monahan and Minnesota’s Guillermo Alvarez will face off for the first time since the Windy City Invite(Jan. 12).%^$
%^$ Currently Alvarez is ranked fourth nationally in all-around (52.862) while OSU’s Monahan is ranked 16th with a two score average of 51.312.%^$Head coach Miles Avery said, though Monahan record the highest all-around score by any freshman against Nebraska (Mar. 3), head-to-headcompetition is a different competition all together.%^$
%^$ “Head-to-Head is sometimes different, so it will be interesting Randy knowing, ‘Alvarez is one of the top freshman and I am one of the top freshman, it is in St. John Arena and I’m not going to let him beat be at home’,” Avery said.%^$
%^$RANKINGS 101
%^$The national rankings system changed its formula from the two score average that could include no more than one home score in the formula. The new formula takes a team’s top three scores, which must include two road scores and one home score. The highest score of the three is dropped and then the other two scores are averaged.%^$
%^$BIG TEN DOMINANCE
%^$OSU is joined in the Top 10 by five other Big Ten teams: No. 1 Penn State, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Iowa, No. 6 Minnesota and No. 8 Michigan.%^$
%^$AT THE HELM
%^$Miles Avery, the 2001 National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year, is in his fifth season at the helm of the Buckeyes.%^$
%^$Avery was an assistant coach for the Buckeyes for nine seasons before he was named head coach in 1998. In his tenure, the Buckeyes have extended their streak of NCAA appearances to 21.%^$
%^$SCOUTING MINNESOTA
%^$No. 6 Minnesota enters St. John’s Arena coming off of a second place finish in a tri-meet against No. 2 Oklahoma and No.11 Stanford Mar. 3 in Norman, Okla.%^$
%^$Clay Strother led Minnesota winning the all-around competition, 54.950.%^$
%^$Strother also placed second on the floor exercise (9.600), pommel horse (9.550), vault (9.450) and parallel bars (9.000), and 10th on the rings (8.800) and high bar (8.550).%^$
%^$GOPHERS NATIONALLY
%^$Minnesota is led by junior Clay Strother, who is ranked third in the all-around (53.150), second in parallel bar (9.000) and third in pommel horse (9.450).%^$
%^$Freshman Guillermo Alvarez is holding his own ranking fourth in all-around (52.862) and third in floor exercise (9.400).%^$
%^$LAST TIME OUT VS. MINNESOTA
%^$OSU last faced Minnesota in a dual meet Feb. 16, 2001 in Minneapolis, which saw OSU defeat 211.325-209.775.%^$
%^$SCOUTING IOWA
%^$ No. 5 Iowa fell to No. 4 Illinois, 214.05-212.925, Mar. 2 with Iowa posting its second-best team total of the season.%^$
%^$ Iowa was led by junior Cameron Schick took the all-around title, posting a score of 52.600 to%^$tie his career-best all-around.%^$
%^$ Schick also won floor exercise with a 9.200. Senior Don Jackson won the pommel horse for the third straight week, posting a 9.45.%^$
%^$IOWA NATIONALLY
%^$Senior Don Jackson is ranked second in the pommel horse (9.450) and sophomore Eric Block ranks seventh in parallel bars (8.850).%^$
%^$Sophomore Justin Leavitt is ranked fourth nationally in high bar (9.300). Two Hawkeyes are ranked in the top ten in all-around, Shane de Freitas (52.087) and Cameron Schick (51.975) are ranked ninth and tenth respectively.%^$
%^$LAST TIME OUT VS. IOWA
%^$OSU defeated Iowa Feb. 17. 2001 in Iowa City, 211.550-206.200. A Buckeye took five of the six vents the teams competed in.%^$
%^$LAST TIME OUT
%^$The No. 6 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team defeated No. 12 Nebraska, 217.400-209.725, in Lincoln, Neb. Mar. 3. OSU’s score is the highest road score in the nation thus far in the regular season. The Buckeyes were led by junior Raj Bhavsar, who won the all-around competition for the second consecutive week with a score of 55.000.%^$
%^$Bhavsar also finished first in pommel horse (9.475), still rings (9.500) and parallel bars (9.600). Fellow junior Dick Huntwork finished on top in the floor exercise competition with a 9.450. Freshman Randy Monahan lead the way on high bar (9.275) as the Buckeye gymnasts claimed the top four places in the event.%^$
%^$Monahan finished second in the all-around competition, 53.300, which is a career high. Huntwork also competed in the all-around, which is his first time this regular season, finished with a 51.925.%^$
%^$Head coach Miles Avery said that this was a meet they had circled to judge where they were in terms of preparing for the post-season championships, and he said they are a head of schedule.%^$
%^$”We exceeded our goal of hitting 70 percent of our routines and we wanted to hit about ten dismounts and we hit 14,” Avery said. “I don’t think we are setting our goals to low, 70 percent is good for this time of year.”%^$
%^$BHAVSAR GYMNAST OF THE WEEK, AGAIN
%^$Ohio State men’s gymnast Raj Bhavsar has been named the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week, the conference today announced. The accolade is the second consecutive for Bhavsar. He shares the honor this week with Minnesota’s Clay Strother.%^$
%^$Bhavsar won the all-around in the Buckeyes’ victory over Nebraska. He scored a 55.000, the second-highest score in the nation this season. He also placed first in rings (9.500), parallel bars (9.600) and pommel horse (9.475) and was second in vault with a 9.375. Led by Bhavsar, the Buckeyes posted a score of 217.400, the highest road scored in the nation this season.
