Bears Bite Nittany Lions From Behind

Being outperformed early in the competition, the No. 4 Cal men's gymnastics team was pressured to make up points in the remaining events against No. 2 Penn State.

This scenario wasn't new for the Bears. In their previous competition, the team had dropped to an early deficit against top-ranked Stanford and was unable to complete a late comeback.

But Cal (6-5) did not let this happen again in its last regular-season contest. A late push by the Bears ensured that the final score would not reflect their slow start, as Cal won 360.400-351.300.

"Starting poorly on two events generally leads to a poor performance overall, but no one gave up the entire time," senior Tim McNeill said.

After having trouble on the floor and pommel horse, the next two events were the rings and vault-usual highlights for the Nittany Lions lineup, as the defending NCAA champions were ranked first on the vault and second on the rings.

In the third rotation, the Bears controlled the rings, with Tyler Block, Evan Roth, Kyle Brady and McNeill taking the first four places.

Then came time for the vault.

Cal had struggled on the event throughout the season, but it tied the top-ranked vault team in the nation-highlighted by a second-place performance by senior Aaron Moy.

"We definitely held our cool and didn't get overexcited or too bogged down," junior Kyson Bunthuwong said. "We were pretty calm and held a steady attitude the whole meet."

Bunthuwong demonstrated his own personal consistency, competing in every event and earning a first-place finish in the all-around with a score of 90.200.

Throughout the season, the Bears spent time simply trying to get healthy. Now, with three weeks of rest before the MPSF championships, the team can focus on the finer elements.

"Now that we have a couple weeks off, it's time to refine, refine, refine," Bunthuwong said. "We've got our routines pretty much down, so now it's just about perfecting them."

And it's an added bonus for Cal to head into the postseason coming off a decisive win-highlighted by the team's performance on the high bar and parallel bars.

The Bears took the top five spots on the parallel bars and the top four on the high bar-paced by Bunthuwong in both events.

"I'm feeling really good after this-we beat the second-place team by 10 points, and we got one of the best all around scores in the nation," Block said.

The Bears won four of the six events on the night, defeating Penn State (6-2) and ending the season how they started it.

In the first competition of the season, Cal knocked off top-ranked Stanford and asserted itself as a power on the national stage. With the decisive win over Penn State, the Bears' feelings are much the same heading into the postseason.

"Cal has definitely stepped up its game, and we have a lot more confidence," Bunthuwong said. "This is what you can expect from us for the rest of the year."

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