2006-07 Men’s Gymnastics Season Outlook – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/31/2006 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Oct. 31, 2006
The Ohio State men’s gymnastics team returns in 2007 with all 14 starters, including three All-Americans, from the 2006 Big Ten Championship team. With a disappointing fourth-place finish at the 2006 NCAA qualifier, the 2007 team has refocused and improved leaps and bounds in the offseason. The Buckeyes have moved beyond the missed opportunity at the 2006 national team championships, and look toward the future challenge to remain among the top programs in the United States.
By returning all 2006 routines, Ohio State has a full year of experience with the difficult sets created last year under the new NCAA scoring guidelines. The NCAA score remained on a 10.0 scale; however, the program difficulty increased to match the skill level in international gymnastics. The Buckeyes look to gain consistency on each event with more confidence in their routines. In addition, Ohio State adds the talent of four freshmen to the squad including Tai Lee, the No.1 high school recruit.
After winning back-to-back Big Ten Championships, the Scarlet and Gray have a tough road to face to bring home a fifth conference title in seven years.
“In the Big Ten the balance of power is shifting a little,” Miles Avery, Ohio State head coach, said. “I think this Ohio State team will remain at the top, but Penn State and Michigan will be tough challengers in the upcoming season. It will be an interesting and competitive year in the Big Ten.”
The 2007 squad features the leadership and experience of four seniors. Willie Ito returns after securing his first All-America nod on high bar at the 2006 national championships with a third-place finish. Senior Kristopher Kline enters 2007 with refined skills tested on the national level against the Top 36 senior gymnasts at the 2006 USA VISA Championships held last August in St. Paul, Minn.
All-American finalist on parallel bars and 2006 co-captain Nicholaus Searcy also returns for the Buckeyes after competing over the summer at the VISA championships qualifier. In 2006, Searcy was nominated by his teammates for the 2006 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. Senior Grant Osborne looks to again turn in consistent sets for Ohio State in the upcoming season.
The wealth of talent continues with the return of the elite junior class. All-Americans on pommel horse and floor DJ Bucher and Jimmy Wickham, respectively, will set the pace for the team on their specialized events. Bucher also noted a title win on pommel horse at the 2006 Big Ten Championships. Both Bucher and Wickham bring competition experience from the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics Senior National Team.
Most recently, Wickham notched a 32.45 to win the U.S. National vault title and earn an outright spot on the national team at the Winter Cup Challenge in February. The vault specialist also competed at World Cup in Ghent, Belgium, last May where he finished seventh on vault with a 15.212.
Juniors Tony Duong, Pejman Ebrahimi, Mike Marino, David Ortiz and Pedro Pineda will continue to be the core of the Buckeye team as they move into the upperclassmen ranks. These juniors will again add stability to events across the board for Ohio State as they did in 2006.
Big Ten Freshman of the Year Jake Bateman and All-American finalist on floor Eddie Hay return with classmate Andy Saurber to again add difficult routines to the Buckeyes’ game plan. Bateman recorded high marks across the board as a freshman scoring above a 9.0 on three or more events twice in the 2006 season.
“The team from last year had a lot of depth, and the four freshmen we are adding this year will only help us add more depth to each event,” Avery said.
Of note for the Buckeyes is the addition of three-time junior U.S. national rings champion Tai Lee.
“Tai had an awesome summer working out with the team at Steelwood Athletic Training Facility and starting classes at Ohio State,” Avery said. “He had the opportunity to join us for summer workouts and begin to get acclimated to college life. He looks like he is going to be tremendous and make the team on every event. I anticipate Lee as a solid all-arounder for Ohio State, a position that has been void in the Ohio State program for a long time.”
Red-shirt freshman Kevin Brown and true freshmen Michael Bell, Vincent DePiero and Justin Myers hope to break into the men’s program line-up this year and back-up the 2007 squad’s campaign for the Big Ten and National Championships.
FLOOR
Floor will be, if not Ohio State’s strongest, one of its Top 3 events in 2007. The Buckeyes again will compete with one of the top floor teams in the nation as the program has in recent years.
“With Jimmy Wickham and Eddie Hay returning to the event and the improvement of Kristopher Kline we have three athletes on our team who are hungry to be the national champion on floor,” Avery said. “The competition between the teammates makes the squad good.”
Bateman also has improved immensely in the offseason on the event. Lastly, the Buckeyes also will add the dynamic talent of Lee to the highly qualified veteran floor team.
POMMEL HORSE
The Buckeyes look to gain greater consistency on pommel horse in 2007. Because of the scoring changes made prior to the start of the 2006 season, many of the pommel horse routines were changed to meet the difficulty requirements. With a chance to familiarize themselves with the new skills, the squad looks to refine and master their pommel horse sets.
Leading on pommel horse will be Bucher, the 2006 All-American and Big Ten Champion on pommel horse. Ito also will suit-up for the Scarlet and Gray with a chance to reclaim his dominance on the event. Avery looks to Ito and Bucher to be the anchors of the Ohio State pommel horse team.
Kline, junior Tony Duong and Lee have shown great improvement on the event and look to join senior Grant Osborne and junior Mike Marino in their efforts to consistently hit routines for the Buckeyes.
RINGS
On rings, the squad will look to the raw talent of newcomer Lee to solidify the team. Lee, a three-time U.S. national rings champion, joins the Buckeyes after already competing in international meets in Ukraine, El Salvador and Japan. In Japan, he finished second in the world on rings at the 2005 International Junior Gymnastics Competition.
Ohio State has plenty of strength in its arsenal to become a national leader on the event. Returning Buckeyes Kline, Bucher, Ebrahimi, Pineda and 2006 rings stand-out Bateman will look to hold the squad above competition.
VAULT
For the Scarlet and Gray, the most change to routines will be seen on the vault as core members of the Ohio State vault team will attempt to hit some of the hardest vaults in the nation.
In a transition year for vaulting, both vault All-American Wickham and Kline will lead the squad as the team elevates the level of difficulty. Wickham and Kline bring Ohio State national competition experience and will be dependable members of the squad on the event.
In addition, the team looks to the improvement of Bateman and Ebrahimi to augment the Buckeyes’ vaulting efforts.
PARALLEL BARS
Ohio State hopes to dominate competition on parallel bars as the team has taken great strides on the event since the 2006 season. In particular, freshmen Lee and Myers have shown noteworthy ability on the event at the junior level and now look for the chance to shine on the collegiate ranks.
The 2006 co-captains Ito and Searcy return as the experts on the event. In 2006, Searcy landed in the Top 5 of the GymInfo national rankings all eight weeks of the regular season and was a 2006 NCAA parallel bars finalist.
Talent continues to advance the Buckeyes’ reign over the parallel bars with Bucher and Bateman in the line-up. Bucher, the Ohio State parallel bars record holder with a score of 9.85, earned four first-place finishes on the apparatus in 2006. The talent only continues for the squad on the physically challenging event with the improvement of Osborne, Marino and Pineda. With the 2007 parallel bars team, Ohio State notes the greatest pool of talent on the event in Avery’s term as head coach.
HIGH BAR
Ito again will be the backbone of the Ohio State high bar team in 2007. After capturing the high bar title at 4-of-6 regular season meets, Ito finished third at the 2006 NCAA individual event championships finals. Also returning to the event will be Kline, Ortiz and Bateman. The three experienced Buckeyes return after seizing the opportunity to fine tune their skills in the offseason.
Ohio State also looks to Lee and Myers, both of whom show extreme focus and agility on the apparatus, to add strength to the high bar team as they make their mark in 2007.
ALL-AROUND
For the first time in recent years, Ohio State touts three potential all-arounders. Kline, Bateman and Lee will lead the Buckeye efforts to re-establish the program’s dominance over all six events like former All-Americans and NCAA champions Buckeyes Blaine Wilson (1994-97), Jamie Natalie (1998-01) and Raj Bhavsar (2000-03).
2007 SCHEDULE
Ohio State kicks off another season by traveling to Chicago for the Windy City Invitational to see action against both conference and non-conference opponents. The team remains on the road for a dual meet at Illinois before returning for 1-of-2 home meets. The season home-opener will welcome Avery’s alma mater, Temple, to St. John Arena.
The Buckeyes face a demanding schedule this year as they challenge four tough competitors, Penn State, Oklahoma, California and Michigan at the end of the season. Ohio State will face-off against Penn State, Oklahoma and California on the road and end the season at home with a dual meet versus Michigan.
“It is a brutal schedule, but I hope it will make us one of the best teams in the nation,” Avery said. “The difficult season will only help ready ourselves for the Big Ten and NCAA championships.”
A plus of traveling this season will be the Buckeyes’ chance to preview the national championships setting when they visit Penn State. Avery hopes it will allow the team to familiarize themselves with the facility before returning in April for the championships.
