Ohio State Men’s Gymnastics Takes Over as No. 1 – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
March 21, 2007
Columbus, Ohio – In what has been a challenging season, the Ohio State men’s gymnastics team has shown it is ready for the championship season. For the first time in the 2007 season, the Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 as they head into the postseason. The Buckeyes survived a difficult second-half of the year with two noteworthy wins against higher ranked Oklahoma (March 3) and Michigan (March 17). With consistent improvement during the regular season, Ohio State is on pace to set program history and win its third Big Ten Championship in as many years.
“We are where we want to be, when we want to be,” Miles Avery, Ohio State head coach said.
The back-to-back conference crowns in 2005 and ’06 marks the second time a Buckeye squad has accomplished the feat during Avery’s tenure and the fourth time in OSU history. Avery also coached the `01 and ’02 squads to consecutive wins. The Ohio State program’s first back-to-back Big Ten Championships came in 1993 and “94. The Buckeyes were repeat champs in `96 and `97 as well. The Buckeyes now look to add a third consecutive league championship win for the first time in program history.
With a 7-4 overall record, Avery’s squad collected wins at two important duals late in the season. Ohio State served two-time defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma its first dual loss at home in seven years with a team season-high road score, 218.65-213.55. The Buckeyes were the last team to beat the Sooners at home (Jan. 28, 2000) when Avery’s squad edged OU by .075 of a point (228.1-228.025). With the win this year, Ohio State recorded the best Big Ten team finish for the week of Feb. 26 and noted season highs on floor (37.65) and rings (38.1).
In a standout performance, freshman rings specialist Tai Lee (Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro Gymnastics) earned a career-high 9.75 for first place on rings against the Sooners. In his freshman campaign, Lee has scored a 9.35 or more and has won twice on rings at six Buckeye meets. He ranks fifth on the apparatus in the national ranking with a 9.5 three-score average as of March 19. The only other freshman ranked in the country’s Top 20 gymnasts on rings is teammate Shachar Tal at 19th.
Lee also leads NCAA freshmen in all-around ranked sixth (51.6) and holds the No. 2 rookie average on high bar (9.017) in the GymInfo rankings. Among his conference counterparts, the Buckeye owns the third best average on parallel bars, fifth on pommel horse, seventh on vault and 11th on floor.
Avery’s squad closed out Big Ten dual action with a 2-1 record after dealing then-No. 1 Michigan its first dual loss of 2007 with a season-high team score, 220.5-215.85. The Buckeyes won all events but floor at the meeting and noted season highs on pommel horse (36.35), vault (36.3), parallel bars (37.1) and high bar (37.3).
Ohio State received a big performance from junior DJ Bucher as he captured event wins on all three apparatuses in which the junior competed for the second time this season. At the conference challenge, Bucher came in first on pommel horse (9.3), rings (9.5) and parallel bars (9.65) and noted Big Ten best on all three events for the week of March 12. In 2007 regular-season action, Bucher has noted two or more event wins at four of his six competitions.
The squad’s seniors have led by example for the Buckeyes, hitting their best routines at the tail end of the season. Willie Ito, a Nissen-Emery Award finalist, won two events each vs. Penn State (Feb. 24), Oklahoma (March 3) and California (March 10), including a season-high 9.75 win on parallel bars against the Cal Bears. Co-captain Kristopher Kline had a personal-best 9.5 on high bar to win the event at the Michigan (March 17) dual and also had season highs on pommel horse (9.0) and vault (8.9). Grant Osborne anchored Ohio State on floor and pommel horse much of the season. Osborne noted season highs on both floor (9.45) and high bar (9.1) vs. the Sooners and finished third on pommel horse with a season-best 8.95 at Penn State. Co-captain Nicholaus Searcy consistently led Ohio State on parallel bars in 2007 and earned a career best on high bar with a 9.1 vs. the Wolverines.
As the pieces continue to come together for the Scarlet and Gray, the squad knows there is still much to prove with only the conference and national championships remaining on the schedule. The team heads to Minneapolis, Minn., for the Big Ten championships March 30-31 and ends the year in University Park, Pa., at the NCAA championships.
