Members of No. 1 Men’s Gymnastics Travel to Winter Cup Challenge – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Jan. 31, 2006
Winter Cup Challenge
Day I: Individual event and all-around qualifying sessions Feb. 2, 3 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST
Day II: Individual event and all-around finals Feb. 4, 9:30 p.m. EST
Winter Cup Challenge
The No. 1 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team will be represented by five current Buckeyes and two former student-athletes at the 2006 Winter Cup Challenge Thursday and Saturday at the Sports Center Arena in Las Vegas.
Ohio State head coach Miles Avery will accompany Jake Bateman, DJ Bucher, Eddie Hay, Willie Ito and Jimmy Wickham and former Buckeyes Raj Bhavsar and Randy Monahan to the competition. Bateman, Hay and Ito will perform in the first of two individual event qualifying sessions on Thursday. Bucher and Wickham will compete in the second individual event qualifying session.
The Buckeyes vie for 14 spots on the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team against 84 gymnasts from 34 collegiate and club gymnastic squads. All gymnasts will compete in an individual event qualifying round on Thursday. The top 40 gymnasts will advance to the individual event finals on Saturday evening.
This is the first year the Winter Cup Challenge will use the new scoring system adopted by International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) last year. The new scoring system no longer limits gymnasts to a maximum score of 10. The Men’s Program Committee, which Avery is a member of, is the governing body for this event.
Last Time Out- Illinois
The No. 1 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team defeated Big Ten foe Illinois, 213.350-206.900, Saturday at St. John Arena in front of a crowd of 775. The Buckeyes dominated the meet, winning five of six events including pommel horse (32.650), rings (34.600), vault (36.100), parallel bars (36.750) and high bar (37.250). With the win, Ohio State increased its record to 8-0-1 over the Fighting Illini in dual meet action dating back to 1995.
“It’s always nice to get a win against a top-team like Illinois,” Miles Avery, Ohio State head coach, said. “There were some good performances tonight. However, I did see areas we need to improve on.”
Ohio State captain Willie Ito (Jr., Huntington Beach, Calif./South Coast Gym) led the way for the team. Ito placed first on both parallel bars and high bar by tallying 9.700 on each event. The score on parallel bars was a career high.
Ohio State in the Rankings
With the 213.350-206.900 win against Illinois, the Buckeyes improved their record to 6-0; 5-0 Big Ten. The team score of 212.500 earns Ohio State to No.1 spot in the nation. The Buckeye squad also leads the nation on parallel bars (36.250) and high bar (36.875) in the GymInfo national rankings.
Ohio State claims the No.1 spot on three of six events in the individual rankings. Sophomore DJ Bucher (Mason, Ohio/Queen City Gymnastics) tops the country on parallel bars (9.475), junior Willie Ito (Huntington Beach, Calif./South Coast Gymnastics) leads on high bar (9.650) and sophomore Jimmy Wickham (Gulfport, Miss./ Planet Gymnastics) holds the top spot on floor exercise (9.400).
Up Next for the Buckeyes
Following the Winter Cup individual event challenge, Ohio State faces-off against UIC in Chicago for the second time this season at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 at the UIC Physical Education Building. The Buckeyes captured first at the Windy City Invitational held by UIC Jan. 14.
