The California men’s gymnastics team has been chosen to compete at the NCAA Championships in Champaign, Illinois, the NCAA announced on Apr. 7. This marks the 27th consecutive year that the Golden Bears have qualified for the event.
The team will participate in Session 1 of the qualifying rounds on April 17 at State Farm Center, alongside Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio State, Greenville and Springfield. The session is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. Central Time). The NCAA Final will take place on April 18 at 4 p.m. Pacific Time (6 p.m. Central Time).
Both qualifying sessions will be broadcast live on ESPN+, with the final airing on ESPN2.
Head coach Bryan Del Castillo said, “I’m extremely proud of this team and what they’ve been able to accomplish. We worked hard to increase our start value this year and it’s now paying off – we earned the fifth-highest score at a conference championship amongst all teams in the country and still have room for improvement. Our plan is to build off this success and qualifies as a team to the NCAA Finals.”
California posted its season-best score of 317.750 at last week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship and holds a national qualifying average of 314.913 heading into nationals. To advance from their qualifying session, Cal must finish among the top three teams; individuals can also qualify by placing among the top three who have not already advanced with their teams.
Last year, Cal was notable for being the only squad in either preliminary session to complete all routines but narrowly missed advancing as a team; instead seven individuals moved forward to finals competition.
