Ohio State’s Willie Ito Named Big Ten Men’s Gymnast of the Week – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Feb. 1, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Buckeye junior Willie Ito was named the Big Ten Men’s Gymnast of the Week, the conference announced Wednesday. Ito had two first-place finishes in the No. 1-ranked Buckeyes’ victory over Illinois last Saturday.
Ito, from Huntington Beach, Calif., placed first on both parallel bars and high bar with identical 9.70 scores, as the Buckeyes downed the Illini, 213.350-206.900, in St. John Arena. Ito’s 9.70 on parallel bars was a career high.
This season, Ito leads the nation on high bar, averaging a 9.65 on the event to rank first in the GymInfo rankings. His average is .4 higher than the second-ranked gymnast.
Ito, along with Ohio State head coach Miles Avery, current Buckeyes Jake Bateman, DJ Bucher, Eddie Hay and Jimmy Wickham and former Buckeyes Raj Bhavsar and Randy Monahan will travel to the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, Nev., this weekend. Ito, Bateman and Hay 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 are vying for 14 spots on the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team against 84 gymnasts from 34 collegiate and club gymnastics squads. All gymnasts will compete in an individual event qualifying round on Thursday. The top 40 gymnasts will advance to the individual event finals Saturday evening.
