No.7 Buckeyes Hit the Road to Face No. 9 Temple, No. 11 Navy Saturday – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
East coast trip serves as homecoming for Avery, Wynn
COLUMBUS, Ohio Moving up a spot to seventh in the GymInfo national rankings, the Ohio State men’s gymnastics team continues its 2008 season with a tri-meet against No. 9 Temple and No. 11 Navy at 7 p.m. Saturday in Philadelphia.
The trip to the City of Brotherly Love’ marks a homecoming for 11th-year Buckeye head coach Miles Avery, a native of Philadelphia and graduate of Temple University. The meet this weekend also marks the closest competition to freshman Brandon Wynn’s hometown of Voorhees, N.J., which is less than 60 miles from Temple.
“We need to hit more routines than last weekend and continue to improve as we move through the season,” Avery said. “We have been hitting routines in practice, so it’s been a positive week with the guys rallying back after our outing last weekend.”
In 2007, Avery’s Buckeyes defeated his former coach and Temple head coach Fred Turnoff’s Owls, 216.35-198.55, in St. John Arena. The last time Ohio State faced Navy in a tri-meet or dual competition was March 10, 1990 as the Buckeyes dealt the Midshipmen a 282.75-269.4 loss in Columbus.
CONFERENCE BEST
Junior captain Jake Bateman earned his first-career Big Ten Gymnast of the Week honor Wednesday after winning the all-around with an 89.1 at home in St. John Arena last Saturday. En route to his first all-around victory as a Buckeye, the tri-captain notched four Top 5 finishes vs. the Fighting Illini. At the meet, Bateman beat out Illinois senior Wesley Haagensen who scored an 88.5 at the league dual. The 89.1 was not only the best mark of the evening in Columbus, but also topped all Big Ten all-around scores recorded last weekend.
At the dual, Bateman notched his first event win of the season, capturing parallel bars with a 15.3 while finishing second on rings (15.15), tying for third on pommel horse (14.05) and fourth on floor (15.05). On vault, the 2006 conference rookie of the year was just shy of tying Illinois’ Tyler Yamauchi, the reigning Big Ten vault champion, for fifth scoring a 15.6 on vault, just .05 shy of the Illini’s mark.
With his first-career Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award, the native of Kingsport, Tenn., becomes the first Buckeye to win the honor since senior tri-captain DJ Bucher did so March 21, 2007.
UPPING THE ANTE
Despite suffering a 355.65-348.1 home loss to the Fighting Illini last weekend, Ohio State improved its score on all events but high bar. The Buckeyes saw junior captain Jake Bateman notch his first-career win in the all-around, compiling a score of 89.1 while freshman all-arounderBrandon Wynn finished third with a 85.75. Senior captain Jimmy Wickham earned his first win on vault this year with a 16.25 while Bateman captured parallel bars with a 15.3.
TRACKING THE OWLS
Last time out, No. 9 Temple fell to the defending national champion and first-ranked Penn State, 353.350-337.350, in University Park, Pa., last Saturday. Dropping all six rotations to the Nittany Lions, the Owls moved to 4-1 overall on the season. Junior Luke Vexler ended the evening with a second-place finish on high bar (14.6) and a third-place finish in the all-around (84.35) while sophomore Tyler Croteau finished fourth on floor exercise (14.8).
SURVEYING THE MIDSHIPMEN
Heading into the tri-meet with a 5-1 record, Navy looks to continue its winning ways after topping the field at the Navy Open last Saturday. As host of the invitational, the Midshipmen defeated both William & Mary and Springfield at home in Macdonough Hall, scoring a 336.9. William & Mary posted a 333.1 for second place while Springfield notched a 321.4 for third. Navy’s win came from behind the effort of senior Brandon Cook who nabbed first on floor (15.25) and second on vault (15.15).
OHIO STATE IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
Entering the fourth week of the regular season, Ohio State is seventh in the GymInfo national rankings with a team total season average of 344.65 after two competitions. Penn State remains atop of the standings with an average of 355.383. Stanford and California jumped over Michigan, ranked second last week, to take the No. 2 (354.183) and No. 3 (352.575) spots, respectively. The Wolverines are currently fourth with a 349.467 average while Illinois is fifth (348.95) and Oklahoma sixth (348.217).
The Buckeyes hold Top 10 team averages on all six events, including a team-best sixth on floor (58.95) and pommel horse (54.8).
BUCKEYES IN THE TOP 20
Four Ohio State gymnasts hold Top 10 individual event scores in the national rankings, including seniors DJ Bucher, Jimmy Wickham and juniors Jake Bateman and Eddie Hay. Wickham holds the highest ranking for a Buckeye tied with Stanford’s David Sender at the nation’s third spot on vault with a 16.1 average while Bucher holds ninth on pommel horse with an average score of 14.225. Hay enters the standings with the 10th highest average on floor, a 14.975, and Bateman appears in the Top 10 twice, sitting in ninth on parallel bars with a 14.825 and 10th in the all-around (85.65).
Ohio State rookie Brandon Wynn cracked the GymInfo Top 20 individual national rankings in three standings rings (16th), high bar (17th) and the all-around (14th).
CONFERENCE STANDINGS
Defending national champion Penn State leads both the Big Ten Conference and national rankings with a season average of 355.383 points. In second is Michigan (349.467) and rounding out the league’s top half is Illinois with an average of 348.95. Ohio State is fourth with a team average of 344.65 while Minnesota drops to fifth in the Big Ten and eighth in the national standings. Iowa, ranked 10th in the nation and sixth in the conference, holds an average of 335.15.
UP NEXT
With a break from collegiate action, Buckeyes Jake Bateman and Sean Regan will compete at USA Gymnastics’ 2008 Winter Cup Challenge Feb. 7-9 in Las Vegas. Ohio State head coach Miles Avery will be there to coach the Ohio State student-athletes, as well as Olympians Paul Hamm and Blaine Wilson, former Buckeye and current Ohio State volunteer assistant coach. This meet also will feature former Buckeyes Raj Bhavsar and Grant Osborne and Ohio State recruits Alexy Bilozertchev and Philip Onorato.
