NORMAN, Okla. – California men's gymnastics had its best meet of the season at the MPSF Championships on Saturday afternoon, with the Golden Bears posting their best team score since 2017 as one of six new program top-10 entries.
 
Cal finished in third at 405.600 – the fourth-best score in modern program history – behind both champion Stanford (422.700) and Oklahoma (418.400) and ahead of Air Force (395.450).
 
"We've been focusing on treating our intrasquad meets like practice and trusting the numbers we've put in over the past few weeks," senior Aidan Li said. "We came into this meet with that same mindset and energy, and we were able to execute just like we do in practice."
 
Cal started off on pommel horse and immediately set the tone for its wildly successful afternoon, compiling a team score of 69.000 to set a modern program record. All five men in the lineup finished at 13.100 or better, led by senior Li's massive PR of 14.700 to shatter the school record by .250 and take third place in the competition.
 
"I just took it skill by skill and trusted what I had done previously in training, knowing that my routine was more of a mental fight than a physical one," Li said.
 
Juniors Tyler Shimizu (13.850) and Jasper Smith-Gordon (13.650) also posted personal bests in the event, the latter by a massive .650. The Bears then moved on to rings, where freshman Jason Mitchell led off and tied his personal best of 13.600. Next, Cal headed to vault, where Smith-Gordon, a regular-season All-American on the event, posted his fifth 14.700 of the year to take second place in the competition and lead a lineup that compiled a score of 70.550 – tied for the sixth best in modern program history.
 
Cal started off the second half of the meet on parallel bars, where the Bears recorded a score of 67.550 – the No. 10 score on the modern program scoring list – and anchor Noah Sano posted a 13.800 to top the lineup. Senior Darren Wong earned a 13.700 on horizontal bar to pace Cal's squad and Shimizu led the Bears with a 13.900 on floor to help cement the team's third 400-plus score of the season.
 
Team Score: 405.600 (Cal Top 4)
 
Floor: 67.150
David Rauchwerger 13.450
Yu-Chen Lee 13.000
Theodor Roald Gadderud 13.850
Tyler Shimizu 13.900
Noah Newfeld 12.950
 
Pommel Horse: 69.000 (School Record)
Tyler Shimizu 13.850 (PR)
Jasper Smith-Gordon 13.650 (PR)
Noah Newfeld 13.700
Noah Sano 13.100
Aidan Li 14.700 (PR, School Record, 3rd Place)
 
Still Rings: 66.600
Jaxon Mitchell 13.600
Darren Wong 13.000
Theodor Roald Gadderud 13.300
Noah Newfeld 13.400
Chris Scales 13.300
 
Vault: 70.550 (Tied – Cal Top 6)
Darren Wong 14.000
Jelani Sweet 13.500
Theodor Roald Gadderud 13.800
Khalen Curry 14.550
Jasper Smith-Gordon 14.700 (Tied – Cal Top 3; 2nd Place)
 
Parallel Bars: 67.550 (Cal Top 10)
Tyler Shimizu 12.800
Darren Wong 13.550
Theodor Roald Gadderud 13.750
Noah Newfeld 13.650
Noah Sano 13.800
 
Horizontal Bar: 64.750
Jaxon Mitchell 12.750
Theodor Roald Gadderud 11.900
Tyler Shimizu 13.100
Darren Wong 13.700
Collin Cunane 13.300
 
UP NEXT
The Bears will soon find out if they have qualified to the NCAA Championships, held this year in Columbus, Ohio, on April 19-20.
 
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