The California men's gymnastics team will open its 2026 campaign this Friday at Haas Pavilion, hosting 2025 national runner-up Stanford at 6 p.m. PT in the first of five scheduled clashes between the Golden Bears and the Cardinal. This will be Cal's first meet under the coaching staff of Bryan Del Castillo, Karl Ziehn and Donothan Bailey, with Del Castillo accepting a promotion to head coach from associate head coach in June 2025.
 
"I'm excited to start the season," Del Castillo said. "This team worked really hard in the preseason, the dedication and commitment has been really high. These guys have been making a lot of upgrades, and we're going to see higher difficulty in routines throughout the year. The squad is overall pretty healthy, which offers us some opportunities when it comes to strategy and makes our depth a little bit better. They're pushing for an NCAA Championships day two qualification – they want it badly."
 
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ACROSS THE GYM - STANFORD: Led by 24th-year head coach Thom Glielmi, Stanford has won five of the last six NCAA Championship titles and is coming off a 2025 runner-up finish, finishing just .163 behind Michigan. Once again, the main man for the Cardinal will be junior Asher Hong, a 2024 Olympic bronze medalist (USA) and a six-time NCAA champion, with two of those titles coming in 2025 on floor and rings. Two of his teammates - Kiran Mandava and Kai Uemura - earned spots on the U.S. Developmental team last season, while Stanford's five-man freshman class is led by current U.S. National Team member Jun Iwai, who led his squad to a gold medal at the 2025 Pan American Championships while earning an individual title on floor. As a team, Stanford posted a national qualifying average (NQA) of 326.813 during the 2025 regular season, peaking at 332.061 at the NCAA Championships final.
 
Cal last met Stanford at the MPSF Championships on April 5, 2025, with the Cardinal outscoring the Golden Bears 328.950-315.450. Stanford leads the all-time series 152-128-2.
 
NEW YEAR, NEW ROLES
Cal's coaching staff is composed of three program alumni this season, each of whom has competed or coached at the highest level. New head coach Bryan Del Castillo, who spent the previous six years with the Bears as an assistant and was the interim head coach for the second half of the 2025 season, earned five All-America honors as a gymnast at Cal and is a former member of the U.S. National Team. Third-year assistant coach Karl Ziehn is a former U.S. National Team coach as well as a seven-year assistant at Stanford, helping the Cardinal to a national title in 2019. New to Cal's staff is Donothan Bailey, a former teammate of Del Castillo's who was a three-time All-American and is the last Golden Bear to win an MPSF title on pommel horse (2012, 2014), won a bronze medal with the U.S. National Team in 2011 and also coached the USA Gymnastics Resident Team in 2011-22. During their time at Cal, Del Castillo and Bailey were named finalists for the Nissen Emery Award, the top honor presented annually to a senior collegiate men's gymnast.
 
ON THE WORLD STAGE
Senior Theodor Roald Gadderud of Norway and sophomore Matteo Bardana of Canada each represented their respective nations on the international stage in the summer of 2025. Roald Gadderud, a four-time All-MPSF honoree who earned two MPSF medals in 2025, competed at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships after runner-up finishes on floor, high bar and the all-around at the Norwegian National Championships. One of the youngest gymnasts ever to be recruited by the Norwegian National Team at age 11, Roald Gadderud ranked 10th in the NCAA on parallel bars in 2025 and competed in his third straight NCAA Championships final. Bardana helped Canada to its first medal in history (silver) at the FISU World University Games as a member of the Canadian Senior Next Gen National Team, earning the spot after winning the Canadian Senior Next Gen parallel bars title and bronze medals on floor and rings. In his first season with the Bears, Bardana earned All-MPSF and MPSF Freshman of the Week honors, later qualifying for the NCAA Championships final on floor and rings.
 
THEY'RE BACK
In addition to Roald Gadderud and Bardana, Cal returns several of its top gymnasts for the 2026 season. Jasper Smith-Gordon, a redshirt senior who owns the vault school records in the current and previous scoring systems, is a two-time College Gymnastics Association (CGA) Regular-Season All-American (2023-24) in the event and the reigning MPSF vault champion, becoming the first Bear to win a conference vault title in 38 years. Fellow senior Khalen Curry is a two-time All-MPSF honoree and a three-time NCAA Finals qualifier, while juniors Carter Kim and Jaxon Mitchell also have received All-MPSF recognition. Sophomore Trigg Dudley, who competed in the British Championships last spring, won the floor title in December at the College Gymnastics Association (CGA) All-Star exhibition contest.
 
NEW BEARS IN THE RANKS
Cal will be fielding six rookies and one graduate transfer in this season's squad. All-around stars Nathan Underhill (Oconomowoc, Wis.), Davide Comparin (Irving, Texas) and Liam DeWeese (Murphy, Texas) each have a Men's Development Program national title to their name, while Finley Chin (Irvine), JD Ehinger (Coppell, Texas) and Will Horenziak (Montgomery, Ohio) have a combined 15 state championships over the past four seasons. Comparin, DeWeese and Ehinger are also former club teammates, having competed for Texas Dreams Gymnastics as junior gymnasts Finally, newcomer Kaien Orion spent the 2023-25 seasons at Stanford, helping the Cardinal to national titles in 2023-24 and appearing in the NCAA Finals in each of the past two years.
 
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