Jan. 11, 2012
THIS WEEK: The No. 10 University of Iowa men’s gymnastics team will make its 2012 debut at the 42nd annual Windy City Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 14 in Chicago, Ill. The event will be at the UIC Physical Education Building at 7 p.m. Iowa will compete against Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Illinois-Chicago.
YEAR IN REVIEW – 2011 SEASON: Iowa had six gymnasts qualify for the 2011 NCAA Championships and establishednine program records in head coach JD Reive’s first season. Matt McGrath, Anton Gryshayev, Javier Balboa, Samuel Wright, Mike Jiang and Ben Ketelsenadvanced to the NCAA Championships while McGrath went on to place fifth on vault. The Hawkeyes finished with a 4-11 record last season with a 1-9 mark in Big Ten action. Iowa broke the program record for highest team score last season, scoring a 351.800 at Nebraska on March 19, 2011.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Hawkeyes checked in at 10th in the preseason coaches’ poll. Seven Big Ten teams are ranked in the top-10.
HAWKEYE NEWCOMERS: Iowa has five newcomers to the program with freshmen William Albert, Devin Clark, Cyrus Dobre-Mofid, Brandon Field and Mitchell Landau.
McGRATH EANRS ALL-AMERICAN HONORS: Matt McGrath became an All-American on vault last season with a fifth place finish at the NCAA Championships. McGrath scored 16.050, 16.250 and a 15.900 to place within the top eight.
BALBOA, McGRATH LAND ON WATCH LIST: Juniors Javier Balboa and Matt McGrathearned preseason honors, landing on the 2012 Big Ten Gymnasts to Watch List. Balboa and McGrath were two of the 12 top conference gymnasts selected. It is the second year in a row Balboa has been named to the annual watch list.
HEAD COACH JD Reive: JD Reiveis in his second season at the helm of the program after a record-setting season his first year at Iowa. Six gymnasts punched their ticket to the NCAA Championships under Reive’s guidance. Iowa also broke four team records and five individual records. Reive came to Iowa after serving as an assistant coach at Stanford from 2003-10, where he helped coach 44 All-Americans.
REIVE ADDS SLATON TO STAFF: Spencer Slaton was hired as an assistant coach, joining Reive and assistant coach Brad Virkleron the Iowa staff.
UP NEXT:Iowa will make its home debut on Jan. 21 as Big Ten foe Illinois comes to Iowa City. Start time is 5 p.m. inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.