COLORADO SPRINGS – Senior Yordan Aleksandrov paced the day in Colorado Springs, Colo., at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships with a conference title, his first ever, on the horizontal bar recording a season best 14.400 to open post season on a high note.
 
Aleksandrov finished fifth in the all-around competition with a 79.250, and added a sixth-place finish in the parallel bars (13.700) to an overall strong effort.
 
The Bears collectively fared in the middle of the pack for the majority of the day and recorded their second consecutive finish in the top three on Saturday. After falling to reigning national champion Oklahoma (414.750), who earned its seventh conference title in a row, and Stanford (404.150), Cal scored 393.650 to finish ahead of a host-team Air Force (392.550).
 
Cal's Aaron Mah also pulled in three top-10 finishes of his own to finish fourth in the all-around with a 79.700 total. The junior tied for fourth in the floor (13.700), ninth in high bar (13.600) and 10th on the pommel horse (12.550).
 
"I am so proud of the way this team came together and worked tirelessly the entire meet," said head coach JT Okada. "Not only that, but this entire season has been grueling and we've fought hard to show what we stand for and represent Cal well. These gymnasts have a tremendous spirit and as a coach that's really fun to watch."
 
Freshman Joseph Dixon also notched eighth place with a collegiate career-best 12.900 on pommel horse to lead the Bears, while Shane Sadgihi's  season-high 13.800 was enough for seventh on the rings, just ahead of Harrison Plate's 13.750 on the apparatus to tie for eighth. Jonathan Wang (14.050) finished 10th on the vault to round things out for the Bears with another 2018 best.
 
The Bears hope to continue their post season at the 2018 NCAA National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships on April 20-22 in Chicago, Ill., and await the selection announcement this upcoming week.
 
For more information on Cal men's gymnastics, follow the team @CalMGym on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.