The NCAA News - News and Features

March 31, 1997

National Collegiate

Last year's best set for another fight

Event: 1997 National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships.

Overview: Ohio State and California finished Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, at the 1996 championships. They may repeat the feat in 1997. The Buckeyes and Golden Bears are the only teams through March 10 to post regional qualifying averages of 231.000-plus. Iowa, which is hosting the 1997 championships, and eight-time champion Nebraska rank Nos. 3 and 4. Stanford, which has claimed three of the last five titles, is ranked seventh ... Ohio State, which leads the nation with a 232.040 regional qualifying average, is led by seniors Blaine Wilson, Drew Durbin and Chad Finefrock and sophomore Tim Elsner. Wilson, who won the 1996 all-around title and shared titles in the rings and parallel bars, is the squad's top performer. Durbin is the two-time defending pommel horse champion ... California, seeking its third title but first since 1975, hopes to end its drought behind performances from David Kruse, Trent Wells and Jeff Stein. Kruse, a senior, placed among the top six individual finalists in four events at the 1996 championships, including a tie for second place on the horizontal bar. The Golden Bears registered a season-best score of 232.325 points against Army March 14 ... The host Hawkeyes feature six seniors, including 1996 individual-event finalists Greg Gebhardt (pommel horse), Chris Camiscioli (rings) and Travis Rosen (vault). The Hawkeyes won the 1969 championship.

Field: Three teams advance from each of two regionals; also advancing are the top three all-around competitors who are not on one of the qualifying teams and the top three individuals in each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor.

Dates and sites: Regional competition is April 5 at Army (East) and New Mexico (West). The championships will be April 17-19 at Iowa.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1395 for dates and sites, 1396 for bracket/schedule, 5112 for qualifiers, 5113 for preliminary and all-around final results, 5114 for team final results and 5115 for individual-event final results. Championship results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Results will be published in the April 28 issue of The NCAA News.

Television coverage: The championships will be televised tape-delayed by ESPN at 12:30 a.m. (Eastern time) May 13.