BERKELEY – California opened a new season highlighted by two career highs and a pair of event wins from junior all-arounder Aaron Mah in the annual Cal Benefit Cup on Saturday night.
 
The Golden Bears finished second in the team score with a 390.000 performance, while Mah was the runner-up in the all-around competition with an 80.700.
 
Cal came in just behind meet champion Stanford (402.150), which also took the all-around competition with Robert Neff coming in just ahead of Mah with a 82.850. Cal outscored SC United which finished with a 291.450 score to round off the tri-meet.
 
The Bears fifth rotation on vault highlighted the evening with the top combined score of 69.400 on the apparatus to edge Stanford's 69.200. Mah led with a 14.200 to win the event. He was followed by senior Michael Rauchwerger (13.900), sophomore Jonathan Wang (13.800), and Yordan Aleksandrov and freshman Shane Sadighi both posting 13.750 to nab the team finish on the vault.
 
Sadighi, an all-arounder, was a valuable addition to the Bears' effort with steady performances throughout the night to open his collegiate campaign.
 
"It's a little bit easier to ask a junior like Aaron to compete in the all-around, but to ask that of Shane, a freshman, to step in to do all-around requires a lot of confidence," said first-year head coach JT Okada. "They both did their jobs. They're helping us keep our scores up there and as we get a little healthier, the load on them will decrease a little bit."
 
Cal put together a strong lineup during its fifth rotation on the parallel bars as well led by Aleksandrov's 14.350 to take the event. Mah notched his first of two career highs of the night on the apparatus with a 14.150.
 
The Bears opened on the floor exercise and we led by a stellar performance from Mah, who earned a 14.000 score to lead the Bears. He was backed by Ramil's 13.400 that helped push Cal into second after the first rotation with a 66.350.
 
Pommel proved the toughest event, but was still lucrative for the Bears as they posted a 60.350 to take the event over SCU (50.900) and the Cardinal (50.750). Despite the event being the lowest combined score for Cal, it was highlighted by Mah's career-high 13.600.
 
"This was a great start and we can build on this," Okada said. "We've been preparing for a couple of months now. There's always room for improvement, but I'm really happy with tonight."
 
The Bears compete on the road for the next two months, heading to Stanford on the Jan. 27, Feb. 10 and March 3, before their first out-of-state meets. Cal will see their conference foe and reigning national champion Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., on March 10 before heading to the Midwest to visit Minnesota on March 18.
 
For more information on Cal men's gymnastics follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CalMGym.