No. 3 Men’s Gymnastics Meets No. 7 Michigan in Regular Season Finale – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
March 12, 2003
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 3 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team will return home for senior night against No. 7 Michigan at 7 p.m. Saturday in St. John Arena. Six seniors will be honored during the last dual meet of the season.
SENIORS LAST HOME DUAL MATCH
Five senior gymnasts and one senior manager will be honored with their parents before the meet Saturday. Raj Bhavsar (Houston, Texas), Michael Evens (Houston, Texas), Dick Huntwork (Pickerington, Ohio), Ryan Schwartzkopf (Columbus, Ind.) and Matt Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah) make up the senior class. Kevin Ohms, a senior student-manager, has served the team for three during practice and competition and will be included in the pre-meet festivities.
BUCKEYES IN THE RANKINGS
After opening the season at No. 2 behind defending national champion Oklahoma, the Buckeyes dropped to third in the Gymnastics Info Poll with 213.0 points scored at the Windy City Invitational. Penn State moved into first place after recording a 217.25 score and Oklahoma slipped to second after it compiled 214.275 points.
The Top 3 remained the same until the Feb. 24 poll, where Ohio State’s 220.5 against Nebraska Feb. 14 and 216.85 against Penn State Feb. 22 combined for a 218.687, which placed the Buckeyes in first place in front of Penn State (218.625).
After a OSU week off, Oklahoma and Penn State pushed ahead of Ohio State in the March 4 polls. Oklahoma posted a 218.062 average to claim the No. 1 spot, Penn State compiled a 217.250 average to land in second and No. 3 Ohio State carries a 216.362 average.
For the March 10 rankings, the Top 3 remained the same and are separated by 1.15 points: Oklahoma (218.662), Penn State (218.257) and Ohio State (217.512).
For individual events, Ohio State ranks first on floor and vault, second on rings and fourth on pommel horse, high bar and parallel bars. Randy Monahan is fifth in the all-around, Ryan Schwartzkopf places second on pommel horse and Kerry Adderly is third on floor. SCOUTING MICHIGAN
The No. 7 Wolverines are visiting Columbus after a third-place finish in a five way meet on March 1in Palo Alto, Calif., followed by a week off. Michigan scored 211.825 points to place behind California (216.525) and Stanford (213.00).
Michigan is led by senior captain Scott Vetere and senior Conan Parzuchowski, who is ranked fifth on rings with a two score average of 9.612 points. Freshman Justin Laury is the Wolverines’ top all-around competitor with a two score average of 51.725 points.
Kurt Golder is in his sixth season as men’s head Gymnastics coach at Michigan. Golder led the 2000 Wolverines to a NCAA second-place finish and their second-consecutive Big Ten Team title.
SERIES INFO AGAINST MICHIGAN
Michigan leads the 63 dual meet series by one victory, 32-31. The teams most recently met in the first match of the season, the Windy City Invitational, where Ohio State placed first with 213.0 points and Michigan placed third with 207.15 points. At the 2002 Big Ten Championships, Michigan posted a 215.1 and placed second behind Ohio State with 218.1 points.
NEXT UP:
Ohio State will play host to the Big Ten championships at 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday in St. John Arena. This will mark the last competition before the NCAA tournament April 11-13 in Philadelphia, Pa.
