Jan. 28, 2002

Palo Alto, Ca- Revenge is an evil deed and unfortunately the UCSB Men's Gymnastics Team was on its best behavior Saturday night as they were unable to avenge their season opening defeat to the Cal this past weekend in the Stanford Invitational.

The Cal Bears (211.975) extended their consecutive win streak in regular season meets to 20 as they outperformed, 2nd place Stanford (206.950) and the Gauchos (201.300) in dominating fashion. The meet held at Burnham Pavilion on the Stanford University campus, leaves the Gauchos at 0-2 on the young season with both defeats coming at the hands of the Golden Bears, but UCSB did improve this meet and in a drastic manner. Last weekend the team was only able to tally an all around score of 191.550, which is nearly ten points below this past weekends output. Look for the currently 18th ranked Gauchos to move up in the polls thanks to the improved scores this past weekend, all with the goal of reaching the top 12 and a place in the National Championships.

Head Coach Mircea Badulescu had this to say about the Gauchos weekend performance, "The improvement was tremendous and to be honest I couldn't believe it. We stepped up drastically all thanks to hard work on the technical aspects during practices and the team's strong motivation."

UCSB was led by Senior Michael Kelley Sang-Ho who captured a Gaucho individual best of 2nd place on the vault with a score of 9.100. Badulescu described Kelley Sang-Ho's performance this weekend as, "very impressive considering he is performing a vault that is very highly evaluated on the world level." The Gauchos were hot on the vault as Junior Geoffrey Howell scored a 9.050 and had what Badulescu simply described as an, "outstanding performance". In the individual all-around Junior Geoffrey Howell placed sixth with a score of 49.450, barely beating fellow Gaucho Kelley Sang-Ho who scored an almost identical 49.400. Team captain Stephen Smith (48.850) and Junior Daniel Levine (46.450) rounded out the individual all- around competition with 8th and 9th finishes.

The meet was easily won the Cal Bears, thanks in large part to the efforts of Cody Moore who took home firsts in the individual all around, scoring 52.500, as well as claiming the crown on the vault with 9.550. Stanford Cardinal's David Durante (51.750) and Dan Gill (51.250) put their best feet forward against their arch rivals, as they snagged 2nd and 3rd in the all around competition.

One would think that the Gauchos feel a sense of urgency to prove their worth and ability in light of their dim future. Administration is planning on canceling the program after this season because of the cost it requires to run the program. Hope is not lost for the Gauchos though, "We have made it known we will take a cut on our budget and are willing to continue fundraising beyond this year," Coach Badulescu pointed out while adding, "I am so proud of my guys they are eager to show they are an excellent team and just want to be kept around as a varsity team."

Both the Men's and Women's teams head to Colorado this weekend to take on the Air Force Academy in a dual meet against the team's arch rival. "They beat us everytime except for the Championship last year, so you could say we got the last laugh. We are motivated, prepared and optimistic that we can make it two in a row against Air Force", quipped the Head Coach.

Team All Around Competition 1. Cal, 211.975; 2. Stanford, 206.950; 3. UCSB, 201.300

Floor Exercise 1. Ricardo Andrade, Stanford, 9.100; 2. David Eaton, Cal, 9.050; 3. Cade Raggio, Stanford, 9.000.

Pommel Horse 1. (tie) David Durante, Stanford, 9.250, Jinjing Zhang, Cal, 9.250; 3. Cody Moore, Cal, 9.150.

Rings 1. Marshall Erwin, Stanford, 9.600; 2. David Durante, Stanford, 9.150; 3. (tie) Aaron Floyd, Jinjing Zhang, Cal, 8.800.

Vault 1. Cody Moore, Cal, 9.550; 2. (tie) Michael Kelley Sang- Ho, UCSB, Cade Raggio, Stanford, 9.100.

Parallel Bars 1. Jinjing Zhang, Cal, 8.900; 2. David Eaton, Cal, 8.550; 3. Dan Gill, Stanford, 8.500.

Horizontal Bar 1. Aaron Floyd, Cal, 9.250; Tom Kutz, Cal, 8.950; Dan Gill, Stanford, 8.800

Individual All Around 1. Cody Moore, Cal, 52.500; 2. David Durante, Stanford, 51.750; 3. Dan Gill, Stanford, 51.250.