BERKELEY, Calif. – The California Golden Bears men's gymnastics team began their home season on Saturday night at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley with a second place finish at the second annual Cal Benefit Cup with a total team score of 426.950. No. 3 Stanford captured the team title with a score of 438.050, and Southern California United was third with 365.900. Senior co-captain Kevin Wolting led the way for California in the all-around competition, posting a score of 87.150, while freshman Aaron Mah had a breakout performance, scoring no lower than 14.650 on any of his three events.

“It was awesome, the energy was great,” head coach Brett McClure said on Saturday night. “This was an incredible crowd for our first home meet and it was an exhilarating competition and a lot of fun to be a part of it. It's extremely important to come out of the gates strong. On Monday, just a few days ago, we had a rough start. That was a point of emphasis today; and we wanted to turn it around and prove to ourselves that we can have a really strong start. We were really happy to gain some momentum from that start today.”

The Bears came out firing on all cylinders on floor exercise in the first rotation, posting a near program-best score of 75.000. No competitor for Cal scored lower than 14.200, and that score was dropped. Mah was very impressive, tallying a 14.850, while the final three competitors posted scores of 15.1000 (junior Nico Del Junco), 15.200 (senior co-captain Kyle Zemeir) and 15.450 (Wolting). Del Junco's hit routine was a new career-best mark.

California slowed a bit on pommel horse, though they did improve mightily on their performance at Stanford earlier in the week with a score on Saturday of 68.500. Wolting tallied the high-score on the night for the Bears, with a routine that garnered a 14.800 from the judges. Fellow senior Kevin Tran posted a 14.500 as well.

Wolting led the way on rings with a score of 14.150, as he helped carry Cal to a total team score of 68.050, but the Bears bounced back on vault with a team score of 73.800. The lowest of the six scores for the Bears was 14.600, and were extremely consistent across the board. Seniors Kevin Ko and Tran each tallied 14.700's, while Mah posted a 14.750, Zemeir earned a 14.800 and Wolting led the team with a 14.850.

The Bears were led again by Wolting with a 14.250 on parallel bars, as the team scored a total of 69.850. Ko's routine garnered a 14.100 from the judges, and Zemeir added a 14.050.

Sophomore Gagik Gharibyan carried the Bears with a team-high 14.700 on high bar, as the team totaled a 71.750 to conclude the meet on a high note. Mah scored a 14.650, sophomore Yordan Aleksandrov tallied a 14.550 and Ko posted a 14.200.

“You can start to see the potential a lot more,” McClure continued. “There were some spikes in excellence and some valleys that we are going to clean up and we are just excited that each one is getting a little bit better. We hope to continue that throughout the season. Next week is going to be another exciting competition. We have Ohio State, who is hosting the NCAA Championships and is one of the favorites to win it all, Stanford who is always a top three contender and Cal, who is on the rise to challenge both programs. It is going to be a really exciting event.”

Cal will be back in action next Sunday, when the Bears host No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Stanford at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, when the competition gets underway at 12 p.m. PT. Fans are encouraged to follow the Bears on social media for the latest updates @CalMensGym on Twitter and Instagram, as well as on Facebook.