The California men's gymnastics team will meet Stanford for the fifth time this season Saturday afternoon, hoping to conclude its regular season on a high note after posting four season-high event scores and a season-high overall team score last week. That outing also marked Cal's and Stanford's last meeting, with the Cardinal outscoring the Bears 325.100-313.300 at the Stanford International Collegiate.
 
AT STANFORD (March 15, 4 p.m. PT – Burnham Pavilion, Stanford, Calif.)
Live Stream/Live Scoring (Virtius)
 
ACROSS THE GYM – STANFORD
Stanford is coming off its fifth-straight national title and is led once more by eight-time CGA Coach of the Year Thom Glielmi in his 23rd season at the helm. The Cardinal is ranked second in the nation with a three-score average of 325.850 and has as a roster that includes four senior U.S. National Team members (Asher Hong, Khoi Young, Taylor Burkhart and Colt Walker) and a pair of U.S. Senior Development Team members (Kiran Mandava and Kai Uemura). Hong, a 2024 Olympic Bronze Medalist, is the NCAA's top man on rings, while Burkhart ranks first in the all-around and Walker third on parallel bars; Young, meanwhile, is the reigning MPSF Specialist of the Week after posting a 14.900 on pommel horse in his season debut last Saturday. In addition to the six men who will represent USA Gymnastics around the world this season, Stanford also fields former U.S. Team member Jeremy Bischoff and 2025 Winter Cup parallel bars silver medalist Brandon Nguyen, as well as one-time MPSF Freshman of the Week Cooper Kim.
 
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, coached his last meet for the Golden Bears on Feb. 28 before transferring to a role in Cal's compliance office. 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 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 one 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 four separate 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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