California hopes for run at title

<br>NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ It's taken some time, but the California Golden Bears feel they're now ready for the NCAA men's gymnastics championships. <br><br>The Bears, who finished third last

Thursday, April 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ It's taken some time, but the California Golden Bears feel they're now ready for the NCAA men's gymnastics championships.

The Bears, who finished third last year behind Ohio State and Oklahoma, enter this weekend's event ranked No. 6 nationally after overcoming a string of injuries and other problems.

``It's been a pretty amazing season for our team,'' coach Barry Weiner said Wednesday. ``At one point, we were practically in a position where we almost had to forfeit meets.''

The Bears have a small roster anyway, with just 11 athletes. Before the year began, co-captain Karl Ziehn was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. Then two-time NCAA high bar champion Michael Ashe reinjured the knee he had been rehabilitating for six months. He was lost for the year.

The Bears' top freshman, Graham Ackerman, sprained both ankles. Cody Moore, a senior and U.S. national team member, then sprained an ankle. And Zhang JinJing was declared ineligible.

``We were bringing five guys to meets, then six guys because we had a guy who did one event,'' Weiner said. ``Now we're at seven, and it's the first time all season that we're actually going to field a full team.''

Weiner said he presented his athletes with an idea and they bought into it.

``The idea was we'll probably get this eligibility thing resolved, our ankles are going to get better, we are a quality gymnastics team, and don't give up,'' he said. ``I don't even think I had to say it, because I don't think there was any quit in any of them.''

Zhang did indeed become eligible, and some of the aches have subsided. Two weeks ago, Cal scored 217 at its conference championships, an indication that the Bears have rounded into form at the right time.

Top-ranked Ohio State is looking to repeat as team champion, although the Buckeyes have a much different look than a year ago. Three seniors helped win the title last year; this year, the Buckeyes have three freshmen competing.

``What we have built to do all season long is build to be the best at the end of the season,'' coach Miles Avery said. ``We are relying so heavily on freshmen, and we had to coax them and bring them along all year long. They have responded very well.''

The Buckeyes are led by a junior, Raj Bhavsar, who finished second in the NCAA all-around last year and is a favorite this year. Bhavsar, a member of the U.S. team that won a silver at the world championships in October in Belgium, hasn't competed in enough meets to be ranked in the all-around this year, but his winning score of 56.0 at the Big Ten championships was the highest score by a collegian this year.

The Buckeyes have lost last year's all-around champion, Jamie Natalie, and vault champion Daren Lynch. But freshmen Randy Monahan, Kerry Adderly and Cody Trobaugh have surpassed expectations and the Buckeyes have improved steadily.

The Buckeyes' score of 218.1 at the Big Ten championships two weeks ago was the fourth-highest score of any team.

Second-ranked Oklahoma owns the top three team scores _ 220.65, 219.225 and 218.125. The Sooners entered last year's NCAA championships ranked No. 1 but wound up losing to the second-ranked Buckeyes by .350 of a point.

``We feel very ready,'' coach Mark Williams said. ``We have quite a bit of depth, we've posted the three highest scores for the season. ... We like our chances, especially being at home.''

The team competition begins Thursday with two sessions. Ohio State, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Temple and Stanford will compete in the first session, with Oklahoma, Penn State, Cal, Iowa, Massachusetts and William & Mary competing in the evening. The top three teams from each session advance to Friday's team finals.

The all-around finals also will be held Friday, with individual event finals Saturday.