Cal Set To Conclude Season At NCAA Championships

BERKELEY – After a season that saw the California men's gymnastics team set four modern program records and its highest team score since 2017, the Golden Bears are headed to the NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio, with high hopes of continuing that trajectory to put on their best meet yet. Cal will compete in Session I of the qualifying rounds at 10 a.m. PT on Friday.
 
Two of Cal's three 400-plus scores have come in its past two meets, including a season-high 405.600 at the MPSF Championships two weeks ago.
 
"I think, because of the depth this team has, that we can have a very good performance," head coach JT Okada said. "We have a lot of upperclassmen, and this is the culmination of all of their competition experience and the skills that they've acquired throughout their careers. We've been seeing it over the course of the year – as guys started to get healthy and the season progressed, we've been able to get a look at our scoring potential. If we do our job, we'll set ourselves up to be in a good position to qualify for the final."
 
The No. 8-ranked Bears will share the gym on Friday with No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 9 Navy and No. 12 Greenville. To advance as a team to Saturday's final, they will need to place within the top-three squads in their section; individuals can also qualify by placing within the top three of those who have not already qualified with their teams.
 
Cal has several athletes who could make a run at a coveted podium spot this year. Junior Jasper Smith-Gordon is chief among those, posting an average of 14.700 on vault to rank fourth in the nation this season. Senior Aidan Li's school-record 14.700 on pommel horse, which earned him second place at the MPSF Championships, is tied for the NCAA's eighth-best score this year. Similarly, Noah Sano's season high of 14.500 on parallel bars is tied for eighth best in the nation. Nissen-Emery Award finalist Noah Newfeld ranks among the nation's top 25 on both pommel horse and parallel bars, while junior Tyler Shimizu is ranked on pommel horse and floor.
 
Individual event streams for both days are available on NCAA.com.
 
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