The California men's gymnastics team will host its final home meet of 2025 this Friday, welcoming Oklahoma and Nebraska to Haas Pavilion at 6 p.m. for its first true tri-meet of the year. Prior to the first rotation, the Golden Bears will celebrate graduating seniors Sean Shimizu, Tyler Shimizu and Landon Wu, as well as graduate students Tomo Kawada and Aidan Li.
 
While the rest of the squad remains in Berkeley, freshman Trigg Dudley will travel across the Atlantic to compete at the English Championships this Saturday, hoping to maintain his spot on the English National Team and qualify for the British Championships in March.
 
SENIOR DAY VS. OKLAHOMA, NEBRASKA (Friday, 6 p.m. PT – Haas Pavilion, Berkeley)
Live Stream/Live Scoring: Virtius
 
ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIPS – SENIOR MEN'S ROUND 6 (Saturday, 10:21 a.m. PT - Telford International Arena, Telford, England)
Live Stream/Results: GymData
 
 
ACROSS THE GYM – OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma is the nation's top-ranked team with an imposing three-score average of 329.167 and boasts the No. 1 squads on floor, rings, and high bar. Led by USA Gymnastics Hall of Famer Mark Williams in his 26th season at the helm, this year's Sooners squad fields elite-level gymnasts from top to bottom, including 2024 Olympian and Turkish National Team member Emre Dodanli, French National Team member Arthur Ballon and former U.S. National Team member Fuzzy Benas, as well as All-Americans Ignacio Yockers, Nico Hamilton, Zach Nunez and Max Bereznev, the latter of whom has yet to compete this season. Five Oklahoma gymnasts have earned weekly awards from either the College Gymnastics Association (CGA) or the MPSF this year, led by freshman Francisco Velez Belendez's two MPSF and one CGA Rookie of the Week nod.
 
Cal last shared the floor with Oklahoma on April 6, 2024, with the Sooners triumphing 418.400-405.600.
 
ACROSS THE GYM – NEBRASKA
Nebraska ranks No. 6 in the nation with a three-score average of 321.317 and fields top-five event lineups on rings (third) and parallel bars (fourth). The Huskers squad, led by 16-year head coach Chuck Chmelka, contains U.S. National Team members Taylor Christopulos and Alex Nitache and 2024 Canadian Olympic Alternate Yanni Chronopoulos. Other stars include freshman Caden Clinton, a six-time U.S. National Junior Champion, as well as All-Americans Zac Tiderman and Asher Cohen (who has not competed this season).
 
The Bears last met the Huskers in the qualifying round of the 2024 NCAA Championships, with Nebraska scoring 419.123 to Cal's 407.158.
 
OKADA STEPS DOWN, DEL CASTILLO TAKES OVER AS INTERIM HEAD COACH
Eighth-year head coach JT Okada, who was hired in May 2017 after spending the previous five seasons as an assistant coach on Cal's staff, is set to transfer to another role in Cal's compliance office after Friday's meet. During his tenure, Okada was instrumental in the development of several national team members and nine All-Americans with 18 total honors, as well as three regular-season All-Americans and three Nissen-Emery Award finalists. He also coached in the 2016 Olympic Games, heading the South African National Team. In the classroom, Okada's athletes have collected 62 CGA Academic All-American honors and 58 MPSF All-Academic nods. Third-year associate head coach Bryan Del Castillo, who joined the Bears as an assistant coach in 2020, will lead the team through the rest of the season as interim head coach.
 
OH, CANADA!
Fifth-year graduate student Aidan Li and freshman Matteo Bardana appeared at the 2025 Elite Canada meet in February, competing against some of the country's best gymnasts for national recognition. Li won his second major Canadian gold on pommel horse with the largest margin of victory in any individual senior event at the meet; meanwhile, Bardana was the top Senior Next Gen gymnast in the all-around as well as the floor, rings and high bar competitions, also taking silver in his age group on parallel bars.
 
NEW RULES
The NCAA has introduced several rule changes to the sport, effective in the 2025 season. Each team is only allowed to enter four athletes per lineup, down from the previous five, while only 12 total gymnasts (down from 15) are eligible to compete each week. Additionally, each routine now only needs to feature eight skills instead of 10.
 
ONE MORE YEAR
Graduate student Aidan Li, who majored in mechanical engineering, returned to the Bears for his fifth and final season in 2025. His Elite Canada pommel horse title is just the latest of his many athletic accolades this year: Li is the NCAA's fifth-ranked gymnast in the event and claimed at least a share of first place on horse in each of Cal's first three meets this year, also earning CGA and MPSF Specialist of the Week after leading the nation in Week 4. As a senior in 2024, he posted four of Cal's top-10 pommel horse scores in the previous scoring era. Following an all-conference nod for his second-place finish on horse at the MPSF Championships, he broke the program record in the NCAA Championships Qualifier and tied for sixth place in the final, earning Cal's first All-America honor since 2021 and the first on pommel horse since 2014. Two months later, he made an appearance at the Canadian Championships, winning the pommel horse title in his first national senior meet. He is just one of 35 athletes to be honored by the ACC with the 2025 Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship Award.
 
TOP PERFORMERS RETURN
In addition to Li, several other Bears with top-level experience are competing for Cal this season, including five more returning NCAA finalists. Theodor Roald Gadderud, who competed for the Norwegian National Team on the world stage prior to enrolling at Berkeley, was named Team MVP after an outstanding season that included an MPSF Gymnast of the Week nod and an appearance in the NCAA All-Around final. Joining him in the latter category is Tyler Shimizu, a two-time All-MPSF honoree who competed in the all-around at the 2023 U.S. Championships. Fellow two-time All-MPSF honoree Khalen Curry reached the NCAA finals in two different events in 2024, while Jasper Smith-Gordon – the 2019 World Junior bronze medalist on vault and a two-time CGA Regular-Season All-American – reached his first NCAA final after a season in which he posted five scores in Cal's top-10 list. Rounding out that group is sophomore Jaxon Mitchell, who was one of just three freshmen to earn 2024 All-MPSF honors; he was also Cal's only rookie to earn a spot in the NCAA final that year, where he competed on rings.
 
WELCOME NEW BEARS
Seven freshmen joined the Bears in 2025, headlined by top international gymnasts Matteo Bardana and Trigg Dudley. Bardana, who hails from Oakville, Ontario, appeared with the Canadian Junior National Team at the 2023 Junior World Championships, while London native Dudley has eight British medals to his name. The rookie class also includes Emilio Bracken Serra (Berkeley), Sam Cirlincione (Huntington, New York), Brendan Friele (Henderson, Nevada), Troy Nuesca (Thousand Oaks) and Evan Wenstad (Santa Clarita). Cal additionally added Ohio State transfer Tomo Kawada, brother of former Cal gymnast Takahiro Kawada, for one final year of eligibility.
 
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