Feb. 8, 2012
THIS WEEK: The No. 12 University of Iowa men’s gymnastics team will host No. 6 Minnesota and No. 11 Nebraska Saturday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Start time is set for 7 p.m. (CT). The event will be televised live on Big Ten Network.
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).
LIVE RESULTS: Live results can be found at http://live.hawkeyegymnastics.com.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS: The Golden Gophers placed fourth in the Windy City Invitational and are coming off two dual wins. Minnesota has nine ranked gymnasts. The Cornhuskers have four ranked gymnasts. It will be Iowa’s first time facing Nebraska as a Big Ten member.
LAST TIME OUT: The Hawkeyes are coming off their best performance of the season, a 332.100-325.200 victory at Illinois-Chicago. Iowa set a team score season high and outscored the Flames on four of six events. Iowa had five individual first place finishes, including two by Anton Gryshayev on pommel horse and rings. Broderick Shemasnky also placed first on high bar and Javier Balboa placed first on parallel bars and all-around.
BALBOA BREAKS OWN RECORD: Balboa broke his own school record on parallel bars, scoring a 15.000 to top his previous record of 14.850, set last season. Balboa placed within the top four in all six events en route to placing first on all-around. Balboa’s score of 84.800 set a team season high and came 1.65 points away from breaking the school record.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Hawkeyes are ranked 12th by GymInfo. Iowa also has two ranked individuals: Balboa on parallel bars (7th) and all-around (12th), and freshman Brandon Field on vault (15th).
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 compete against top-ranked Oklahoma on Feb. 25 in Norman, Okla. Start time is set for 7 p.m. (CT).
