Ferris, Bucher, to compete at U.S. Championships with teammates Monahan and Bhavsar – Ohio State Buckeyes
6/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
June 27, 2005
Jill Corbett
Lantern staff writer
While many students are sitting back and enjoying the relaxation that comes with summer break, members of Ohio State’s men’s gymnastics team have been spending long hours, hard at work in the gym.
Four Ohio State gymnasts are currently training to compete in the U.S. Championships, which will be held in Indianapolis, Ind., August 10 – 13.
Senior teammate Randy Monahan and Ohio State alumnus Raj Bhavsar have already pre-qualified to the championship meet.
Teammates Ron Ferris and DJ Bucher earned their spot at a qualifying meet held this weekend.
Seventy gymnasts from all over the country competed in the meet, which was held in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ferris and Bucher performed well, not only qualifying for championships, but placing first and second on their specialty events, high bar (Ferris) and parallel bars (Bucher).
Assistant coach Doug Stibel, who traveled with the two gymnasts, said he is pleased with how Ferris and Bucher performed.
“(Ferris and Bucher) did well on their events,” he said, adding that Ferris did a “phenomenal job” on high bar where he earned the highest score of the meet, a 9.675.
While Ferris and Bucher performed exceptionally well on their specialties, high bar and parallel bars, both suffered difficulties on pommel horse.
However, overall both gymnasts feel that the qualifying meet was a good experience.
“(The competition) was good and bad,” said Ferris, adding that although he would’ve like to hit his pommel horse routine, he was happy to finally perform his own skill, a 2 ½ pirouette on high bar, in competition.
Stibel said he feels competing in college gave the gymnasts an advantage over other competitors at the qualifier.
“We’ve had a pretty full year with NCCA Championships. (Because of all the competitions throughout the year) the guys are more experienced.” Stibel added that the gymnasts also had the advantage of training with gymnasts than most competitors at their level.
Though competing in college meets all year did help prepared the gymnasts for the meet, there are still many differences between competing at the collegiate level and competing individually at the national level.
“It’s a whole different atmosphere,” said Bucher. “In college, it is all for the team. (In this type of competition), it is all on you to do well and finish where you want to finish.”
Both Ferris and Bucher said they will continue to compete in individual competitions, in addition to college gymnastics.
Their next competition will be the U.S. Championships in August.
This, however, is not the final goal for either of the two gymnasts.
“I want to hopefully make the national team,” Ferris said. “And then get to an international meet and get my name out.”
Bucher said he has similar goals.
“I’m hoping to (perform well) at championships and make the senior team. And then go on to world trials and hopefully be on the world team.”
Stibel said Ferris and Bucher have a good chance of making the national team, and that he and head coach Miles Avery will continue to encourage their athletes to compete beyond the collegiate level.
“Absolutely. We want guys to have the dream to compete further. We go after guys like that, and we’ve shown and proven that this is a place where they can do that.”
