California Golden Bears Athletics
Saturday, January 25
Stanford, CA
7:00 PM
California
at
Stanford Open
Darren Wong Earned A Career Best On High Bar On Saturday
Photo by: Rob Edwards/klcfotos
Bears Break 400
1/25/2020 10:43 PM | Men's Gymnastics
Cal Stands Tall Against National Powers Stanford And Oklahoma
STANFORD - Third time's a charm.
After the first two meets of the 2020 season didn't go exactly as well as the California men's gymnastics team would have liked, the Golden Bears put on a strong performance in Saturday's tri-meet against MPSF foes and national powerhouses Stanford and Oklahoma, breaking an overall team score of 400 (400.700) Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion on the Stanford campus. Cal set season team highs in all six events.
The Cardinal placed first with a score of 420.050, while the Sooners finished second (408.200).
Among the many highlights on Saturday, the Bears posted a score of 64.050 on pommel horse, led by Darren Wong's season-high 13.700. Pommel horse had been the event that was giving Cal the most trouble in the first two meets. The score was just shy of five points better than its previous season high.
Head coach JT Okada said starting the night with the strong routines on pommel horse set the tone for the rest of the meet.
"We worked really hard on pommel horse all week," Okada said. "It's no secret that it was a source of issues for us in the past two weeks. We did what I said we were going to do, went back in the gym and practiced on it. Starting on the event is something we haven't done yet in a meet, and that helped us for the rest of the meet. It helps to take that monkey off your back. The rest of the meet went really well along with that."
Jonathan Wang, Kyte Crigger and Kyle Shuttle competed in the all-around. Wang paced the Bears with an all-around score of 79.650. He just came up short of qualifying for the Winter Cup. He is an alternate in case any of the qualifying gymnasts are unable to compete at the meet.
"We had three guys do all-arounds," Okada said. "For all of them to do every event, that's tiring and taxing. Going from event to event, warming up and then competing is tough. Darren Wong did five events, as well, and we had a number of guys step up in other events that they hadn't competed in before. I'm really proud to see this team come together in this way after facing a little bit of early adversity."
Cal notched its top two team scores this season on floor (71.150) and vault (70.900). Yu-Chen Lee and Wang each posted career bests on floor at 14.250 and 14.200, respectively. Wong recorded the top score for Cal in the event at 14.450, a season best. Wong also garnered a career-high score of 13.850 on high bar.
On vault, Lee, Shuttle and Asad Jooma all earned career bests. Jooma scored a 14.500, Shuttle a 14.450 and Lee posted a 14.100. In addition, Caleb Rickard (13.950) and Wang (13.900) boosted the Bears in the event.
Cal returns to Berkeley for the Pac-12 Invitational against Stanford, Arizona State and Washington on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. from Haas Pavilion.
After the first two meets of the 2020 season didn't go exactly as well as the California men's gymnastics team would have liked, the Golden Bears put on a strong performance in Saturday's tri-meet against MPSF foes and national powerhouses Stanford and Oklahoma, breaking an overall team score of 400 (400.700) Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion on the Stanford campus. Cal set season team highs in all six events.
The Cardinal placed first with a score of 420.050, while the Sooners finished second (408.200).
Among the many highlights on Saturday, the Bears posted a score of 64.050 on pommel horse, led by Darren Wong's season-high 13.700. Pommel horse had been the event that was giving Cal the most trouble in the first two meets. The score was just shy of five points better than its previous season high.
Head coach JT Okada said starting the night with the strong routines on pommel horse set the tone for the rest of the meet.
"We worked really hard on pommel horse all week," Okada said. "It's no secret that it was a source of issues for us in the past two weeks. We did what I said we were going to do, went back in the gym and practiced on it. Starting on the event is something we haven't done yet in a meet, and that helped us for the rest of the meet. It helps to take that monkey off your back. The rest of the meet went really well along with that."
Jonathan Wang, Kyte Crigger and Kyle Shuttle competed in the all-around. Wang paced the Bears with an all-around score of 79.650. He just came up short of qualifying for the Winter Cup. He is an alternate in case any of the qualifying gymnasts are unable to compete at the meet.
"We had three guys do all-arounds," Okada said. "For all of them to do every event, that's tiring and taxing. Going from event to event, warming up and then competing is tough. Darren Wong did five events, as well, and we had a number of guys step up in other events that they hadn't competed in before. I'm really proud to see this team come together in this way after facing a little bit of early adversity."
Cal notched its top two team scores this season on floor (71.150) and vault (70.900). Yu-Chen Lee and Wang each posted career bests on floor at 14.250 and 14.200, respectively. Wong recorded the top score for Cal in the event at 14.450, a season best. Wong also garnered a career-high score of 13.850 on high bar.
On vault, Lee, Shuttle and Asad Jooma all earned career bests. Jooma scored a 14.500, Shuttle a 14.450 and Lee posted a 14.100. In addition, Caleb Rickard (13.950) and Wang (13.900) boosted the Bears in the event.
Cal returns to Berkeley for the Pac-12 Invitational against Stanford, Arizona State and Washington on Sunday, Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. from Haas Pavilion.
Players Mentioned
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