Feb. 17, 1998
THIS WEEK: Friday, Feb. 20 Stanford Stanford 7:00 p.m.
NEXT WEEK: Thursday, Feb. 26 Peter Vidmar/UCLA Invitational UCLA All Day
BEAR FACTS AND FIGURES: The 1997 NCAA champion California men's gymnastics team is ranked No. one in the nation with a 4-0 record. They have a current 26 home meet winning streak dating back to 1985 and have not lost a regular season competition since March 15, 1996 when they fell to Ohio State 229.500-229.100 at the Gold's Challenge in Santa Barbara. The Bears are top-10 nationally ranked in all seven events including a No. one rank on the high bar (39.00) and No. two rankings on the horse (38.350) and the parallel bars (38.250).
BEARS TRY TO MAKE IT THREE: Cal faces Stanford in a dual meet this Friday, Feb. 20 at Stanford and will be aiming to defeat the Cardinal for the third time this season. These two teams last faced off on Feb. 6 in a triad with UC Santa Barbara in Berkeley with Cal taking home the title with a 228.500 score. Cal leads the all-time series with Stanford 82-32-2.
LAST WEEK'S COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS: Andrew Hampy, Alex Chansky and Josh Landau competed with Cal assistant coaches and gymnastics alumni David Kruse and Trent Wells at the prestigious Winter Cup Challenge in Houston, Texas last weekend. Wells was the most successful of the Cal contingent in the Individual Event Finals placing second on the p-bars (9.05) and third on the floor (9.00). Chansky, Landau and Hampy qualified for the all-around finals where they finished at Nos.19, 28 and 35, respectively. Blaine Wilson of Columbus, Ohio swept all six individual events and won the all-around finals with a 56.800 score to take home $6,000.
ABOUT THE CARDINAL: Stanford is nationally ranked 18th with an average score of 217.150. The team is ranked in the top 20 nationally in every event with its highest rank being 14 on the p-bars. In its last competition on Feb. 6, the Cardinal was upset by unranked UC Santa Barbara 214.000-211.250 in a three-squad meet at Cal.
SPOTLIGHT ON EVGENNI ZHEREBCHEVSKIY: Zherebechevskiy was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation gymnast of the week for his stellar performance at Cal's meet against UC Santa Barbara and Stanford on Feb. 6. He placed first in all four of the events in which he was entered, setting career highs on the floor (9.75), vault (9.40) and h-bar (9.85). He also tied a personal best on the p-bars with a 9.75 score.
BEARS IN THE RANKINGS: Oleg Kosyak is ranked second in the national all-around standings with a 57.90 top score and Evgenii Zherebchevskiy is right behind him at No. 6 with 57.26 points...these two former Ukrainian national team members are also in the floor rankings with Kosyak at No. 4 with a 9.80 and Zherebchevskiy ranked No. 5 with 9.750 points, and the h-bar rankings with No. 2 Zherebchevskiy posting a 9.850 and No. 4 Kosyak at 9.80...Zherebchevskiy is tied for fifth on the still rings (9.750) and tied for third on the p-bars (9.750)...Josh Brickelbaw is tied for second on the horse with a 9.80 score...Jeff Stein and Alex Chansky are tied with Kosyak for fourth on the h-bar.
ABOUT COACH WEINER: The 1998 season marks Barry Weiner's seventh as head coach of the Golden Bears. Largely credited with developing the University of California gymnastics program into one of the nation's finest, Weiner's hard work and dedication paid off last season when he led the Bears to a perfect 17-0 regular season and the NCAA Championship, Cal's first since 1975. Weiner's '97 Bears also took home five All-America awards during the individual event finals and Weiner, who had twice been tabbed as the West Region's Coach of the Year (1993 and '95), capped the magical season as the 1997 National Coach of the Year. Including last year's unblemished campaign, Weiner's career record now stands at a stellar 105-33-1.
