April 18, 2012
THIS WEEK: The University of Iowa men’s gymnastics team will compete at the NCAA Championships Qualifier on Thursday in Norman, Okla. The Hawkeyes will compete in the first session of the qualifier, beginning at 1 p.m. (CT). The competition will be held in the Lloyd Noble Center.
FORMAT: The top three teams from each session will advance to the team finals Friday. The top three all-around competitors not already on a qualifying team, and the top six individuals per event, who are not members of qualifying teams and who have not already qualified on all-around, will advance to the team final Friday. The top 10 gymnasts on each event from the team finals will qualify to the individual finals, with the top eight earning All-America status.
OPPONENTS: Iowa will compete in session one against No. 2 Penn State, No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 10 Nebraska. Top-rated Oklahoma, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Minnesota, No. 6 California, No. 9 Temple and No. 12 Air Force will compete in the second session.
SHEMANSKY HONORED BY BIG TEN: Junior Broderick Shemansky was named first team All-Big Ten following the completion of the Big Ten Championships. Shemansky placed sixth in all-around with a career best score of 85.150.
HAWKEYES SCORE BIG: Iowa placed sixth at the 2012 Big Ten Championships in Carver-Hawkeye Arena after finishing with its second highest team score of the season (342.800).
3 HAWKEYE GYMNASTS ADVANCE: Senior Zach Cazabon, junior Matt McGrath and junior Javier Balboa qualified to the event finals of the Big Ten Championships. Cazabon placed seventh on pommel horse (13.900), McGrath placed eighth on vault (14.950), and Balboa finished eighth on parallel bars (14.050).
IN THE RANKINGS: The Hawkeyes stayed at the No. 11 spot in the latest rankings. Balboa is ranked No. 10 on parallel bars, Shemansky is ranked No. 11 on all-around, and junior Anton Gryshayev is ranked No. 17 on rings.
LIVE RESULTS: A live webcast of each session is available at NCAA.com, and live stats will be available at SoonerSports.com.
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.