April 12, 2007

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Although the No. 7 California men's gymnastics team failed to qualify for the team finals in the NCAA Championships Thursday night, seven Golden Bears qualified for tomorrow night's individual event qualifier.

Cal finished fourth in Session II with a season-best score of 216.550. Minnesota's 216.900 was just good enough to finish ahead of the Bears and qualify for the team finals. Penn State came in first in the session, posting a score of 218.900, while Oklahoma took second (218.600). Cal finished ahead of fifth-place Nebraska (209.100) and sixth-place Temple (205.400).

Sophomore Kyson Bunthuwong, one of the seven Bears who advanced to the individual qualifier, also qualified for the all-around finals tomorrow night. Bunthuwong will need to finish in the top eight in order to earn all-around All-America honors. Bunthuwong finished Session II with a final total of 53.80. He tallied scores over nine in four events, including two career bests on still rings (9.000) and vault (8.750).

The other six Cal gymnasts who qualified were senior Bromley Palamountain, juniors Tim McNeill, Colin Christ and Aaron Moy, sophomore Evan Roth and freshman Bryan Del Castillo.

McNeill, the defending national champion on pommel horse, will compete in four events on Friday (high bar, still rings, pommel horse and parallel bars). He took top honors on parallel bars in Session II with a career-high score of 9.750. McNeill also set a new career best on still rings, recording a 9.700.

The Bears won parallel bars with a team score of 37.250. They also tied for first on high bar (36.600). The best event-score for Cal was a 37.700 on still rings, taking second in the event. Senior Caleb Kirk helped the Bears earn that score with a 9.450 in the event, tying his career best.

Along with McNeill and Bunthuwong, Christ and Del Castillo qualified for multiple events. Del Castillo will compete on floor exercise and vault, while Christ advanced on high bar and parallel bars.

Roth scored a career high on vault (9.150) and qualified in that event. Moy advanced on vault as well, while Palamountain qualified on high bar.

For complete results visit: http://www.gopsusports.com/NCAAGymnasticsM/

The team and all-around championships take place tomorrow at 4 p.m. (PST). The individual event finals take place on Saturday.

Session II results:
Penn State - 218.900
Oklahoma - 218.600
Minnesota - 216.900
California - 216.550
Nebraska - 209.100
Temple - 205.400