Season Preview: 2019 Michigan Men's Gymnastics
12/18/2018 11:39:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
» U-M brings back all of its individual top scorers from last season in Jacob Moore, Mack Lasker, Ryan Dunning, Anthony McCallum and Cameron Bock (two events).
» Based off last season's NCAA team lineup, the Wolverines return 25-of-30 routines (83 percent), including the entire lineup on floor exercise, pommel horse, and vault.
» Sophomores Cameron Bock and Jacob Moore were named Gymnasts to Watch by the Big Ten Conference, while U-M was selected third in the Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll.
The University of Michigan men's gymnastics team, under the guidance of 23rd-year head coach Kurt Golder, will lean on a senior-laden squad in hopes of improving upon a runner-up finish at the 2018 Big Ten Championship and a return to NCAA team finals.
Bock
Wolverine Bites
• As a team, U-M was selected third in the annual Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll, with defending Big Ten Champion Illinois taking the top spot. Minnesota came in at No. 2, with Penn State coming in fourth. The poll was rounded out by Ohio State (fifth), Nebraska (sixth) and Iowa (seventh). U-M was slated fifth in the CGA poll, with defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma topping the poll, followed by Stanford, Illinois and Minnesota.
• According to Golder, the 2019 Wolverines possess a very high ceiling and lots of talent. Keys to contend for a Big Ten and NCAA title are hitting routines consistently throughout the season and staying as healthy as possible. The team should be one of the strongest in the Big Ten, with an overall goal of capturing a national championship.
• Senior Anthony McCallum, a two-time NCAA vault champion, enters his senior season in Ann Arbor with a chance to enter elite company and become only the third three-time NCAA vault champion. The last gymnasts to accomplish the feat were New Mexico's Chad Fox (1986-88) and Chicago's Earl Shanken (1940-42). In the U-M record book, McCallum looks to join Edsel Buchanan (1949-52, trampoline) as the only other Wolverine to win a trio of NCAA titles on one event. Currently, he is grouped with Sam Mikulak (2011-14), who owns a pair of titles on high bar and parallel bars.
• McCallum was injured against Oklahoma in the first regular-season meet of the season, and fought through it the remainder of the schedule. He did not participate on vault again until the Big Ten Championships, where he placed fifth with a 14.700. Two weeks later at NCAA's, he failed to qualify for event finals after marking a 14.000.
• U-M's senior captains, Ryan Dunning and Alec Krystek, are both former walk-ons. Krystek is the model U-M gymnast according to Golder, while Dunning is a leader by example.
• U-M brings back all of its individual top scorers from last season in Big Ten preseason watch list member sophomore Jacob Moore (floor, 14.95), junior Mack Lasker (pommel horse, 14.45), senior Ryan Dunning (still rings, 14.40), senior Anthony McCallum (vault, 14.85) and sophomore Cameron Bock (parallel bars, 14.60 - high bar, 14.65).
The makeup of the squad features 10 seniors (eight true, two fifth-year), as well as six juniors, six sophomores a trio of freshmen.
• Bock, a Big Ten preseason watch list member, figures to be one of the top returning all-arounders in the country as a sophomore after placing 10th at NCAA's with a score of 81.032, the fourth-highest score for a returning gymnast in the nation. He is also coming off a summer where he placed third in the all-around at the US Championships (81.999). A gymnast with few weaknesses, Bock will lead the Wolverines on his top event, parallel bars.
• With a senior-laden squad, U-M welcomes a freshman class that consists of three gymnasts in Kevin Penev (Rochester, N.Y.), Miles Miller (Hartsdale, N.Y.), and Casey Wentland (Farmington Hills, Mich.). The three-person class is U-M's smallest since 2014.
Penev, one of the nation's top recruits and brother of former US National Team member and Nissen-Emery Award Recipient Eddie Penev, is a US Junior National Team member and placed seventh in the all-around at the 2018 US Championships. Penev will start off on three events (floor, vault and pommel horse) with the possibility of competing on still rings later in the season. Wentland will contribute on still rings from the get-go.
• Based off last season's NCAA team lineup, the Wolverines return 25-of-30 routines (83 percent), including the entire lineup on floor exercise, pommel horse and vault. U-M's floor unit ended the season ranked No. 3 in the country (69.069 average) and No. 4 on vault (71.206). The pommel horse unit ranked eighth in the land, at 65.850.
• In total, U-M brings back a pair of NCAA All-American's on vault in McCallum (2016-17) and Emyre Cole (2017), as well as last season's honorees in Dunning, Bock and Moore.
2018 Season in Review
• At the NCAA Championships, U-M earned a trio of All-America honors. Moore tied for an NCAA runner-up finish on floor exercise with a 14.366, the highest finish for a Wolverine on the exercise since 1992. Bock placed 10th in the all-around with a score of 81.032, just outside of a citation, and took fifth on parallel bars (14.400) for his first All-American honor. Dunning scored a 13.900 on still rings for a third-place finish. The trio of All-Americas for U-M is the most since 2016. As a team, Michigan placed fourth of six teams in qualifying Session I, scoring a 400.590 to end its team-competition season, placing eighth overall.
• U-M hosted the 2018 Big Ten Championships and placed second in the team competition (408.600) behind Illinois. The last time U-M earned a runner-up finish was 2012 season, when the Wolverines also took second to the Illini. Bock took fourth in the all-around competition with a score of 82.800, becoming the first freshman since Sam Mikulak (2011) to earn All-Big Ten honors in the all-around. The Wolverines qualified eight gymnasts on 12 routines for event finals, led by Moore, who qualified first on floor exercise with a score of 14.700.
• Individual finals saw Bock take fourth in two of his three events: high bar (13.725) and still rings (13.825). As a whole, U-M found success on rings with Bock narrowly missing the top-three by .05, scoring a 13.825. Senior Dmitri Belanovski placed fifth with a 13.800. U-M took fourth and fifth on vault with a 14.700 from Cole and a 14.675 from McCallum.
2019 Schedule
• The 2019 slate features three home meets, beginning with a rivalry matchup with Ohio State on Saturday, Feb. 2. The Wolverines also will welcome Iowa (March 9) and the UIC Flames (March 30) to Cliff Keen Arena.
• Other meet highlights include trips to defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma (Feb. 23), as well as a tri-meet against 2018 Big Ten Champion Illinois; and the Wolverines will take on Penn State in State College on March 16.
• This season marks the first that a regular-season Big Ten Champion will be crowned by conference record.
• The Big Ten Championships will be contested April 5-6 and will be hosted by Iowa. The NCAA Championships follow two weeks later (April 19-20), and will take place in Champaign, Illinois.
Ticket Information
• Admission for all home meets inside Cliff Keen Arena is free of charge.
• For Group Experiences, call (734) 647-1268 or email gobluegroupsales@umich.edu.
Players Mentioned
