BERKELEY – California men's gymnastics is set for a new challenge as it opens the 2018 season at home in early January before heading on a two-month road stint to prepare for a tough conference meet and post season.

With first-year head coach JT Okada leading the charge, the Golden Bears host a pair of home meets, including the season-opening Cal Benefit Cup on Jan. 13 and a tri-meet with Arizona State and Washington on March 24, when the Bears will celebrate senior night. Both are set for 7 p.m. (PT) starts.

The remaining regular season slate finds the Bears on the road and pitted against Stanford who was ranked second in the nation for most of 2016. Cal opens its five-meet road schedule at the Cardinal's home on on Jan. 27 for the Stanford open, with the Bears returning on two more occasions to Burnham Pavilion  (Feb. 10 and March 3).

Cal will pay a visit to back-to-back reigning national champion Oklahoma on March 10 to get a glimpse of the MPSF Championship landscape before heading to the Midwest to face Minnesota on March 18.

With months of road trips under their belts, the Bears will head into the conference finale on April 7 in Colorado Springs, Colo., where they face host-team Air Force, Stanford and OU.

Cal placed fourth a season ago in the MPSF Championship before heading to the NCAA tournament, where the 12th-seeded Bears were unable to advances to the team conference final. Several Bears, however, were able to reach finals in individual events, but were unable to place in the top 10.

For more information on Cal men's gymnastics follow the team on Twitter and Instagram @CalMGym and like the Cal Men's Gymnastics page on Facebook.