BERKELEY - A couple of strong performances by true freshmen making their collegiate debuts highlighted the 2020 season opener for California, but Stanford defeated the Golden Bears, 407.300-382.850, at the Cal Benefit Cup inside the RSF Gymnasium on the Cal campus. 

Cal's highest event score was on vault (68.700), but that event also featured the top event score of the night for the Cardinal, as well, at 73.050. Senior Asad Jooma posted Cal's best mark of the night on vault with a 14.000. Right behind Jooma was sophomore Caleb Rickard who notched a career-best 13.900 in the event. His previous personal best was 13.700. 

"There were some great performances tonight," head coach JT Okada said. "A lot of them were by our freshmen. We put three freshmen on pommel horse. The freshmen were all over our lineups. To see some really good hits, it's promising for the future. Obviously, this is not our best start, and we can definitely improve on this, and I think we will fairly quickly. We just have to get back to work on Monday. It's a long season. We need to stay healthy and we'll be alright."

Freshman Noah Sano stood out to Okada for making a promising debut. Sano posted scores of 13.300 on parallel bars, a team best, as well as a mark of 12.300 on pommel horse. 

There were a lot of debuts between the freshmen - Sano, Will Lavanakul, Kyle Shuttle - and sophomore Liam Doherty-Herwitz, who missed last season due to injury. Just having numerous Bears get their feet wet with real competition was a good sign for Okada and his staff on Saturday. 

Regardless of what the scoreboard showed, the weekend was a victory for the Cal men's gymnastics program with all the support, donations and contributions from fans towards the Cal Benefit Cup, one of the program's most important annual fundraisers. 

"We have an amazing amount of support, support staff and people who not only believe in this meet but in Cal men's gymnastics as a whole," Okada said. "That's always on full display every time we host this meet. So many people come up to us asking how they can help. I'm really happy with how everything went this year. We have one more day to go, we're not done yet, but so far everything has been great."

Cal continues its stretch of home meets when the Bears host Air Force on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 4 p.m. from Haas Pavilion.