Men's Gymnastics Travels to Minnesota for Saturday Meet

Fe 11, 2016

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Meet Notes

THIS WEEK:
The No. 7-ranked University of Iowa men’s gymnastics team travels to Minneapolis, Minnesota, this weekend for a meet with No. 3 Minnesota, No. 5 Illinois, and No. 2 Stanford. The teams will also share the gym with the Canadian National Team and the University of Minnesota Club team. The meet will take place inside the Sports Pavilion and begins at 5 p.m. (CT).

FOLLOW ALONG:
Fans can follow the meet through live stats and a live stream through the Periscope app. A link to live stats will be available on the Iowa men’s gymnastics schedule page at hawkeyesports.com. The meet will also be streamed on BTN Plus (subscription required).

LAST TIME OUT:
The Hawkeyes competed in Norman, Oklahoma, against the top-ranked Sooners and No. 7 California. Iowa placed second in the meet with an overall team score of 426.950. Oklahoma (447.400) won the meet and California (425.850) finished in third place overall. Individually, senior Doug Sullivan finished third on pommel horse with a 15.000. Senior Jack Boyle placed second overall on high bar with a 15.100. In the all-around competition, senior Matt Loochtan set a career best all-around score, placing second overall with an 86.250 and Boyle posted an 86.200 for third place.

BOYLE RANKED 2ND IN THE COUNTY:
Senior Jack Boyle is in the national conversation following his recent performances on high bar. The Naperville, Illinois, native is ranked second in the country on high bar with an average score of 15.000 through four meets with his high score of 15.300 coming against Illinois. Boyle trails only Stanford’s Robert Neff by .025 points. As a team, the Hawkeyes rank third nationally on high bar with an average score of 71.975.

Cory Paterson COMPETES IN CANADA:
During the Hawkeyes off-week, junior Cory Paterson traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with assistant coach Ben Ketelsen for the 2016 Elite Canada Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Paterson placed seventh overall in the all-around competition with a 79.100 and third on high bar with a 13.600 effort.

SCOUTING THE FIELD:

• Minnesota enters this weekend’s meet ranked third nationally, according to roadtonationals.com with an average score of 432.525.
• ?The Golden Gophers are currently on a three match winning streak with wins over Penn State, Nebraska and Air Force.
• Individually, Zach Liebler ranks second in the country on floor exercise with an average of 15.662. ?
• Stanford comes into the weekend ranked second in the country (440.590).
• Akash Modi ranks first nationally in all-around with an average score of 89.967. ?
• Head coach Thom Glielmi is in his 14th year as head coach of the Cardinals.
• Iowa faces No. 5Illinois for the second time this season. The Hawkeyes fell to the Illini 430.850- 431.150 on Jan. 23.
• Brandon Ngai holds the top spot in the country on pommel horse with a 15.410 average.

HIGH SCORING HAWKS:
Iowa made history in back-to-back meets on Jan. 23-24. The Hawkeyes have never scored above a 430.000 team score in January in the program’s history, but in 2016, the team did it twice with a 430.850 coming against Illinois on Saturday and a 431.150 the next day against UIC.

BIG TEN SHOWS POWER:
The Big Ten Conference has been dominant so far this season. Of the top ten teams listed on roadtonationals.com, seven are from the Big Ten, including: No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 5 Illinois, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 7 Iowa, No. 9 Penn State and No. 10 Michigan.

HAWKEYES SIGN 3 FOR 2016-17:
The Iowa men’s gymnastics team signed three standout gymnasts for the 2016-17 season. Andrew Herrador (Sunnyvale, California), Nicholas Merryman (Brookline, New Hampshire) and Mitch Mandozzi (Harvard, Massachusetts) signed National Letters of Intent to continue their gymnastics career at Iowa. The recruiting class has combined for nine state championships and five national championships.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN:
The 2016 men’s gymnastics team breaks down in to four freshmen, three sophomores, five juniors and six seniors.

HAWKEYE NEWCOMERS:

• The Hawkeyes welcomed four freshmen to the team for 2016: Todd Beyer II, Jake Brodarzon, Kevin Johnson, and Rogelio Vazquez.
• Beyer, a 2015 Iowa state champion in all-around, also competed at JO nationals in 2015, placing first on high bar, second on floor, and third on vault.
• Brodarzon is a 2014 national champion on vault and was also crowned the 2015 state champion on floor, rings, vault, high bar, all-around in his home state of New Jersey.
• Johnson competed at the 2015 Michigan state championships placing first on pommel horse and second on rings. He also competed at JO Nationals this past year. ?
• Vazquez, a back-to-back state Florida champion on rings and all-around, is a six-time JO National Championship qualifier (2009-15). He is also a regional champion on rings, parallel bars, and all-around.

2 NAMED GYMNASTS TO WATCH:
Junior Andrew Botto and senior Matt Loochtan were both named to the Big Ten Men’s Gymnasts to Watch List, announced by the conference on Dec. 10. It is Botto’s first appearance on the list, while Loochtan earns the honor for the second consecutive season.

Loochtan, a 2014 All-American on rings, set a career best on vault in 2015 with a 15.150 at the Winter Cup in Las Vegas. Loochtan also set season highs with a 15.200 on rings in a March 15 meet against Nebraska and a 14.850 on parallel bars at the Big Ten Championships on March 27.

Botto, a Redwood City, California, native set new career bests on rings and vault last season. He scored a 15.050 on rings for second place in a win against Minnesota and Nebraska on Feb. 14 and set another career high a month later with a 15.100 on vault, tying for first. Botto was also named an academic All-Big Ten honoree.

HEAD COACH JD Reive:
JD Reive, the seventh head coach at Iowa, is entering his sixth year at the helm of the program. Reive is looking for continued success following a sixth place finish at the NCAA Championships last year. Reive has led an all-american in each of the past three seasons and has one of the highest team GPA’s at Iowa with eight gymnasts named to the 2015 Big Ten Winter Academic All-Conference team.

In 2015, Iowa sent five gymnasts to compete in the event finals of the Big Ten Championship. Doug Sullivan was named all-conference on pommel horse following a score of 14.800. As a team, Iowa placed sixth with a team score of 427.600. At the NCAA event finals, Jack Boyle was named an all-american on high bar with a sixth place finish and a score of 14.850.

Reive graduated from Nebraska in 2000 with a bachelor of journalism degree and was an assistant at Stanford from 2003-10 where he helped the team grab four top three finishes. Reive was also named Collegiate Gymnastics Association Assistant Coach of the Year three times (2006, 2009 and 2010) and was also the National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2009.