Jan. 18, 2012
THIS WEEK: The No. 13 University of Iowa men’s gymnastics team will make its home debut with a co-ed meet against sixth-ranked Illinois on Jan. 21. The contest will begin inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 5 p.m. (CT). Due to construction, Iowa’s last meet in Carver was March 7, 2010.
LAST TIME OUT: Iowa placed sixth at the Windy City Invitational with a team score of 316.800. Iowa finished with three individual top-five finishes. Freshman Devin Clarke led the Hawkeyes with a third place finish on vault, scoring 14.900. Javier Balboa placed fourth on parallel bars with a 14.500. Anton Gryshayev scored 14.700 on vault to finish fifth. Five of six teams at the invitational were nationally ranked.
SCOUTING ILLINOIS: No. 6 Illinois finished runner-up at the Windy City Invitational, posting a team score of 341.900. C.J. Maestas was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Monday. The Fighting Illini were ranked second in the preseason coaches poll.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Hawkeyes are ranked 13th by GymInfo. Iowa also has three ranked individuals: Devin Clarke on vault (5th), Balboa on parallel bars (8th) and all-around (12), and Gryshayev on rings (14th) and vault (19).
BIG TEN NETWORK: The Hawkeyes will have three televised meets this season on the Big Ten Network. Iowa’s home meet against Minnesota and Nebraska on Feb. 11 will be televised live at 7 p.m. (CT). Iowa’s meet at Minnesota on March 3 will be televised on tape delay at 3:30 p.m. (CT) on March 10th. Both days of the Big Ten Championships, hosted by Iowa April 6-7, will be televised live at 7 p.m. (CT).
BALBOA, McGRATH LAND ON WATCH LIST: Juniors Javier Balboa and Matt McGrath earned preseason honors, landing on the 2012 Big Ten Gymnasts to Watch List. Balboa and McGrath were two of the top-12 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 Reive is 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.
UP NEXT: Iowa will face Illinois-Chicago on Jan. 28 inside the UIC Physical Education Building in Chicago. Start time is set for 5 p.m. (CT).