Scoresheet

BERKELEY – In 2022, California men's gymnastics started off the season with a score of 382.100.

In 2023? Try 394.950 – their second-best season opener in the modern scoring era.

The Bears welcomed reigning national champion Stanford (410.500) to Haas Pavilion on Saturday night for the collegiate portion of the annual Cal Benefit Cup, with all competitors in high spirits and eager to debut their new routines. Three athletes – sophomore Jasper Smith-Gordon and freshmen Khalen Curry and Theodor Gadderud – made their collegiate debuts for Cal, while the squad's veterans accumulated a total of seven personal bests.

Senior Yu-Chen Lee paced the Bears on the floor exercise with an even 14.000 in the first rotation, while classmate Noah Sano posted a career-high 13.950 on pommel horse to win the overall event title (which the Bears also won as a team, 63.800-61.900). Three of five on the still rings – Sano (13.300), senior Aidan Giusti (12.700) and junior Noah Newfeld (14.150) collected personal bests, with Newfeld's score ranking third in modern program history behind Harrison Plate (2019) and Yordan Aleksandrov (2017).

Cal then kicked off its best event of the night on vault, totaling 70.550 points thanks to Smith-Gordon's astonishing debut score of 14.600 – just 0.066 off the program record and good for the event title – and junior Jelani Sweet's PR of 14.450. Two Bears accumulated personal bests on the parallel bars, with junior Chris Scales reaching a total of 13.500 and Sano scoring a team-high 13.950 for his third career score of the night. The meet concluded with junior Collin Cunane leading Cal on the horizontal bar, posting a score of 12.950.

"We can be very dangerous when we perform like this," said head coach J.T. Okada. "We also had plenty of mistakes, so we have plenty of room to improve. That's what is so exciting about this result.

"This team is good," he finished.
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will have two weeks to rest, recover and refine before heading down to the Stanford Open on Jan. 28, where they will rematch the Cardinal at Burnham Pavilion. Cal's first rotation is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. PT.


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