Two Ohio State Gymnasts Win at Big Ten Finals – Ohio State Buckeyes
3/31/2007 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
March 31, 2007
Results
Minneapolis, Minn. – Ohio State sophomore men’s gymnast Eddie Hay (So., Butler, Pa./Butler Gymnastics) and junior DJ Bucher (Mason, Ohio/Queen City Gymnastics) won conference individual titles Saturday at the 2007 Big Ten Men’s Gymnastics Individual Event Championships. In all, seven of nine qualified Buckeyes competed at the Sports Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“The guys had a lot of energy coming in tonight and we came away with two Big Ten event champions,” Miles Avery, Ohio State head coach said. “We’ve trained hard all year so I don’t think this weekend took too much out of us, so we’ll be fresh for the NCAA championships.”
Hay again stole the spotlight on floor as he won the event championship recording his second personal best in two days with a 9.825. The 2007 Big Ten Champion on floor was only .05 points shy of tying the individual Buckeye record. The OSU program-high of 9.875 was noted by former Buckeye Dick Huntwork in 2002. Jimmy Wickham (Jr., Gulfport, Miss./Planet Gymnastics) also had a strong night on floor scoring a 9.55 for fourth.
“I felt good at my warm-up and after my first pass I felt it was going to be a good set,” Hay said. “I’m ecstatic to win a Big Ten championship as a sophomore.”
In the pommel event finals, senior co-captain Kristopher Kline (Westerville, Ohio/Hocking Valley Gymnastics), the only Buckeye to qualify on the apparatus, had an 8.5 for fifth place.
On his first of two event finals, Bucher finished tied for third with Tyler Yamauchi of Illinois with a 9.55 on rings. Pejman Ebrahimi (Jr., Encino, Calif./LeClub Gymnastics) was the first gymnast to go on vault and scored an 8.825 to end the night in sixth place while classmate Wickham had a 9.25 to take third for the second time at the event finals.
On parallel bars, Bucher and senior co-captain Nicholaus Searcy (Sr., Dublin, Ohio/Hocking Valley Gymnastics) represented the Buckeyes. With a 9.675, Bucher nabbed his second career Big Ten parallel bars individual title. The junior was also the event champion as a freshman when he scored a 9.737. Bucher has noted an event win at each of his three Big Ten championships including a victory in 2006 on pommel horse (9.0). Searcy ended the competition in seventh with an 8.575.
“Tonight wasn’t exactly what I wanted because I was upset with my rings set,” Bucher. “I think that helped motivate me to do better on parallel bars.”
For Ohio State, Nissen-Emery finalist Willie Ito (Sr., Huntington Beach, Calif./South Coast Gymnastics) finished 8.5 on high bar for sixth.
At the conclusion of the Big Ten championships, three Buckeyes were voted to the 2007 All-Big Ten team. For the third year in a row DJ Bucher was named to the team, along with teammates Eddie Hay and Tai Lee (Fr.,Orlando, Fla./Orlando Metro Gymnastics).
Avery won his third-consecutive Big Ten Coach of the Year accolade and shared the honor with Minnesota head coach Mike Burns. With Avery’s third-consecutive win, he became the first Big Ten coach to do so since the inception of the award in 1988.
Each year, one gymnast from each conference team is voted by his teammates for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. This season, Hay won the honor from his Ohio State teammates.
The final two awards were the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Big Ten Gymnast of the Year. Minnesota’s Andre Berry was named the 2007 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the 2007 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year laurel went to Wesley Haagensen of Illinois.
UP NEXT FOR OHIO STATE
After the Big Ten Championships, Ohio State returns to Columbus to ready for the 2007 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships April 12-14 at Rec Hall located on Penn State’s campus in State College, Pa. Teams from the Big Ten, Eastern College Athletic Conference and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation are automatic qualifiers for the 65th NCAA championships. Ohio State won the Big Ten’s automatic bid after claiming its third-consecutive conference title Friday.
