Although many students are sitting back and enjoying the relaxation that comes with the summer break, members of Ohio State's men's gymnastics team have been hard at work in the gym.
Four OSU gymnasts are training to compete in the U.S. Championships, which will be held August 10-13 in Indianapolis.
Randy Monahan, a senior on last year's squad and alumnus Raj Bhavsar have already pre-qualified for the championship meet. Senior Ron Ferris and sophomore DJ Bucher earned their spot at a qualifying meet held last weekend.
Seventy gymnasts competed in the qualifying meet, which was held in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Ferris and Bucher performed well, not only qualifying for championships, but placing first and second respectively on their specialty events: high bar (Ferris) and parallel bars (Bucher).
"(Ferris and Bucher) did well on their events," said assistant coach Doug Stibel, adding that Ferris did a "phenomenal job" on high bar, where he earned a score of 9.675.
Although Ferris and Bucher performed exceptionally well on their specialties, both experienced difficulties on the pommel horse.
"(The competition} was good and bad," said Ferris, adding he was happy to finally perform a 2 ½ pirouette on the high bar in competition.
Stibel said competing in college gave the gymnasts an advantage over other competitors at the qualifier.
"We've had a pretty full year with NCAA Championships. (Because of all the competitions throughout the year) the guys are more experienced," he said.
Even though competing in college prepared the gymnasts in many ways, there are differences between collegiate level competition and competing individually at the national level.
"It's a whole different atmosphere," said Bucher. "In college, it is all for the team. (In this type of competition), it is all on you to do well and finish where you want to finish."
Their next competition will be U.S. Championships in August, but their aspirations do not stop here.
"I want to hopefully make the national team," Ferris said. "And then get to an international meet and get my name out."
Bucher said he has similar goals.
"I'm hoping to (perform well) at championships and make the senior team and then go on to world trials and hopefully be on the world team," he said.
Stibel said both gymnasts have a good chance of making the national team.
"We want guys to have the dream to compete further," Stibel said. "We go after guys like that, and we've shown and proven that this is a place where they can do that."
Spring Break
