April 13, 1998
THIS WEEK:
Tue-Sat, April 14-18
NCAA Championships
Penn State
7:00 p.m.
BEAR FACTS AND FIGURES: The 1997 NCAA champion California men's gymnastics team is ranked No. 1 in the nation with a 35-0 record ... Cal completed an undefeated regular season for the second consecutive year when it defeated No. 11 Massachusetts (222.625), No. 19 Stanford (222.525) and Army (200.400) in a quad meet on March 20 at Stanford ... Cal has a current 29-home meet winning streak that dates back to Jan. 20, 1995 and has not lost a regular season competition since March 15, 1996 when it fell to Ohio State, 229.500-229.100, at the Gold's Challenge in Santa Barbara ... the Bears recorded the highest team point total in the nation this year with a 233.490 at the Gold's Challenge on March 7; that mark is the second-best in Cal history ... Cal is nationally ranked in the Top 10 in every event: No. 1 on the high bar (39.083), floor (38.617) and horse (39.083), No. 3 on the rings (38.600), No. 4 on the vault (38.583) and No. 5 on the parallel bars (38.350) ... head coach Barry Weiner was honored as 1998 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Co-Coach of the Year with BYU's Mako Sakamoto.
BEARS TRAVEL TO PENN STATE: After winning its second straight NCAA West Regional crown and its second MPSF title in three years, the Bears head to the NCAA Championship at Penn State on April 13 intent on defending its NCAA title. The top performers will advance to the individual finals on Saturday, April 18 to compete for All-America honors. As a freshman last year, Andrew Hampy posted a career-best 9.800 on the floor to earn that distinction.
BEARS WIN WEST REGIONAL: Cal took first place at the NCAA West Regional on April 4 at Oklahoma with a total of 231.450 points, their second best score of the season. The Bears recorded the top team score in every event except the high bar and totaled a season high 38.475 on the parallel bars.
Cal gymnasts placed in the Top 3 in every event except the still rings and took first place on the floor (Andrew Hampy-9.775), horse (Josh Birckelbaw-9.875), parallel bars (Oleg Kosyak-9.750) and vault (Kosyak-9.750). Kosyak won his fifth all-around title in nine meets with a 58.025 total.
ABOUT THE NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD: The NCAA team championship preliminaries feature the top three finishers from the East and West Regionals. The top 3 teams from the preliminary competition will advance to the team final on Friday, April 17 ... No. 4 Ohio State, No. 10 Illinois and No. 3 Iowa will represent the East while Cal is joined by No. 8 BYU and No. 7 Oklahoma as representatives from the West ... Oklahoma and Iowa placed second and third, respectively, to Cal last year. ... Illinois will be making its first appearance in the NCAA championships since 1993 when it took sixth place ... Ohio State is the last team to defeat Cal; the Buckeyes edged the Bears, 229.500-229.100, at the Gold's Challenge on March 15, 1996.
SIGNIFICANT FACT: The Bears are attempting to become the first team in Cal history to complete an undefeated season wire-to-wire. Last year, the Bears came close, going 17-0 over the course of the regular season, but lost to Nebraska and Oklahoma at the MPSF Championships to blemish their record. If the results from both regional competitions are any indication, Cal should accomplish that feat. The Bears overall meet score and team scores on the horse, rings, vault and high bar at the West Regional also tops the scores recorded in those events at the East Regional.
RECORDS ARE MADE FOR BREAKING: Cal has had a year for the record-books, both as a team and individually. Its season high team total on the horse (39.250), set on March 7, and on the vault (39.000), set on March 15, are all-time school records. The Bears totaled 38.990 points on the rings on March 7 for second place on the all-time list (39.025, 2/97). On March 13, Cal tied its third-best all-time bar performance with a 39.150 total. Cal's season-best 233.490 meet score set at the Gold's Challenge on March 15 is the second-best in school history (233.825, 4/97).
Eight of the ten returning gymnasts on Cal's squad have bettered their career high scores in at least one event. Senior Josh Landau is the team's most improved gymnast with new personal bests set onevery apparatus in which he competes; floor: 9.350, horse: 9.250, rings: 9.050, vault: 9.100 and h-bar: 9.350.
SPOTLIGHT ON OLEG KOSYAK: Junior Oleg Kosyak is the nation's No. 3 all-arounder and is No. 1 on the floor (9.817), No. 4 on the p-bars, No. 8 on the h-bar and No. 10 on the horse and rings. His first place 58.280 all-around performance at the Gold's Challenge toppled Cal's all-time record of 58.200 set by Bob Sundstrom in 1988. Kosyak has set career highs in every event this year except the rings: floor (9.850), horse (9.800), vault (9.850), p-bars (9.900) and h-bar (9.800). He holds the team high scores on the floor, vault, p-bars and all-around.
BEARS IN THE RANKINGS: Five Bears besides Kosyak are ranked nationally. Evgenni Zherebchevskiy is No. 4 on the rings (9.825) and h-bar (9.833), No. 11 on the p-bars (9.733) and No. 10 on the floor (9.717) and in the all-around (57.342). Josh Birckelbaw is No. 2 on the horse (9.842), Gewin Sincharoen is No. 17 on the h-bar (9.717) and is tied with Tal Moscovitz and Kosyak at No. 10 on the horse (9.800). Dave Eskildsen is tied with Kosyak at No. 8 on the h-bar (9.800).
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 this year's campaign, Weiner's career record now stands at a stellar 136-33-1 (802).
1998 Bests by Event
Event Team Individual
Floor 39.000 (3/7) 9.850 (Kosyak, 1/31)#
Pommel Horse 39.250 (3/7) * 9.900 (Birckelbaw, 3/7)#
Rings 38.990 (3/7) 9.880 (Zherebchevskiy, 3/7)
Vault 39.000 (3/15) * 9.850 Kosyak, 3/15) #
Parallel Bars 38.475 (4/4) 9.900 (Kosyak, 3/15)#
High Bar 39.150 (3/13) 9.900 (Zherebchevskiy, 3/13)
All Around 233.490 (3/7) 58.280 (Kosyak, 3/7) #*
