March 12, 2011
BERKELEY - For the first time all year, the No. 3 California men's gymnastics team won all six events, giving the Golden Bears a 353.350-336.950 win over No. 10 Iowa on Saturday evening. Dennis Mannhart won the all-around title with an 86.500 in front of the 545 fans in attendance at Haas Pavilion.
Also having a stellar night was Kyle Bunthuwong, who won three events - pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar. The Bears are now 2-2 in dual meets while the Hawkeyes drop to 2-3.
"I think it went really well," Cal head coach Tim McNeill said. "I think the guys did an incredible job. We were very prepared coming into this and I'm just happy that all the hard work paid off. I think we're going to build a lot of confidence from this."
Heading into the last rotation - Cal on high bar and Iowa on p-bars - the Bears held a 294.850-383.600 lead. The Bears beat the Hawkeyes' h-bar total, 58.500-56.00 and Iowa could not get close to Cal's parallel bars score of 58.950 for the final 353.350-336.950 total.
The Bears won floor with Daniel Culpepper taking home the first-place medal. Kyle Bunthuwong won pommel as did the Bears as a team, defeating Iowa, 57.900-55.850. On vault, it was Jeffrey Langenstein's 16.250 that won the event. Steven Lacombe won rings with a 14.950 and Bears took the first three sports to ensure a team victory - 57.000 to 54.000. Bunthuwong notched a 15.200 to win parallel bars and tallied an incredible 15.600 on horizontal bar to win the event with the final routine of the night.
Cal notched a 57.400 on floor thanks to Daniel Culpepper's first-place finish of 14.900. Bryan del Castillo took third overall and second amongst the Bears with his 14.350. Dennis Mannhart was fourth (14.200) and Jean Monteclaro tied for fifth (13.950).
Kyle Bunthuwong's 15.250 was good enough to win pommel horse and enough to propel the Bears to an event win. Iowa's Ben Ketelsen and Mike Jiang took second and third, respectively. Nic Blair was fourth with a 14.250 and Matthew del Junco and Donothan Bailey tied for sixth with a 14.150.
Langenstein paced the Bears and all competitors on vault with a 16.250 with Iowa's Matt McGrath taking second with a 16.100. California secured the next three sports with Jean Monteclaro in third (16.050), Mannhart fourth (15.700) and Christian Monteclaro finishing fifth (15.600). Steven Lacombe tied for seventh with a 15.200.
The Bears took the first three spots on rings with Steven Lacombe finishing first with a 14.950. Next in line was Kyle Bunthuwong with a 14.400 followed by Mannhart with a 14.050. Christian Monteclaro (13.600) and Jean Monteclaro (13.550) rounded out the Cal contributors.
Cal's top four finishers were also the top four contestants on parallel bars with Bunthuwong leading the way with this first place score of 15.200. Daniel Geri finished second (14.950), James Kerry (14.650) and Eric Haeussler tied Lance Alberhasky for fourth (14.150).
Bunthuwong led the way on high bar, outscoring the closest competitor by almost a full point with a 15.600 to close the meet. Haeussler was next in line with a 14.450 for second and Mannhart took third at 14.250. Jacob Jizrawi got on the board with a 14.200 for fourth place.
The Bears have a week or so off from competition to prepare for the March 25 meet versus Stanford. The meet kicks off a 7:30 p.m. at Haas Pavilion and is free for all to attend.
