Ohio State Men’s Gymnasts Finish Day I at Winter Cup Challenge – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/3/2006 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Feb. 3, 2006
Five members of the No. 1 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team completed the two qualifying sessions of the first day at the Winter Cup Challenge Thursday at the Sports Arena Center in Las Vegas. Sophomore DJ Bucher placed seventh overall out of 84 gymnasts to lead the Buckeyes. Also competing for Ohio State were Jake Bateman who placed 21st, Jimmy Wickham (68th), Willie Ito (71st) and Eddie Hay (76th).
Bucher (So., Mason, Ohio/Queen City Gymnastics) led the Buckeyes with the highest all-around score 85.800 and a fifth place finish after the completion of the second individual event and all-around qualifying session. Bucher’s two best finishes were a fourth place finish on parallel bars (15.000) and a sixth place finish on pommel horse (13.950).
“DJ did great,” Miles Avery, Ohio State head coach, said. “He has the best chance to make the national team. DJ struggled on vault yesterday, but we are making changes in his vault to hopefully earn him a higher score in the finals on Saturday.”
Sophomore Wickham (Gulfport, Miss./Planet Gymnastics) earned Ohio State’s only first place finish on an apparatus scoring a 16.400 on vault. Wickham’s 16.400 was not only the top score on the apparatus during the second session, but also, beat out the first place finish score of 16.300 from Session I. Wickham, also competing on floor, earned a 14.300 to tie for ninth.
“I believe Jimmy also has a chance to make the national team if he improves his performance on floor and continue to vault like he did last night,” Avery said.
In the first session Friday, Bateman (Fr., Kingsport,Tenn./Premier Athletics) placed highest among the Buckeyes competing in the session finishing ninth out of 37 gymnasts with an all-around score of 82.150. Bateman’s two strongest performances were a third place finish on parallel bars (14.150) and a seventh place tie on high bar (14.250). Junior co-captain Ito (Huntington Beach, Calif./South Coast Gym) scored high on both parallel bars and high bar. Ito tied for 11th place on parallel bars scoring 13.400 and tied for fifth place on high bar with a 14.500.
Competing only on floor, Hay (Fr., Butler, Pa./Butler Gymnastics), scored a 13.850 for a 13th place finish on the event.
Former student-athletes Raj Bhasvsar’s all-around score of 81.100 placed him 27th overall and Randy Monahan placed 48th scoring a 71.700.
Bhasvsar and Monahan finished 12th and 22nd respectively in the first qualifying session. Bhasvsar’s best finish was a fifth place finish on vault with a score of 15.950. He also tied for ninth on rings with a score of 13.900. An all-around total of 81.100 placed Bhasvsar in 12th.
For the night, Monahan turned in three top-ten performances including a third place tie on rings (14.600), a fourth place finish on floor (14.900) and a seventh place tie on vault (15.800).
“The Buckeyes are well represented this week among the nation’s top gymnasts,” Avery said. “Ohio State still has three good chances to make the national team with DJ Bucher, Jimmy Wickham and Randy Monahan.”
Three Buckeyes continue to compete for 14 open spots on the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team. Bucher, Bateman and Wickham, along with Bhasvsar and Monahan, qualified for the second day of competition at the Winter Cup Challenge on Saturday.
The Buckeyes put the finishing touches on their performances in a final day of training on Friday before returning for the individual event and all-around finals at 9:30 p.m. EST on Saturday.
