Repeating as national champion is on the minds of many Ohio State football fans right about now. Repeating as national champion was on the minds of many OSU gymnasts all of last year.

They came up only one spot short, and now their hunger to take home the top prize is even stronger.

After barely missing out in their quest for a second straight title in 2002, OSU men’s gymnastics coach Miles Avery has his squad ready to get started in 2003.

“Our goals are set really high every year,” Avery said. “We want to win the Big Ten and the national championship and we typically have a team that can accomplish goals like that. This year is no exception. This is one of the more talented teams I’ve had.”

One of the more talented athletes Avery has the luxury of relying on this year is senior Raj Bhavsar, who won the individual all-around NCAA championship last year.

Bhavsar was blunt when asked about the talent on this year’s team.

“This is by far the most talented team we’ve had in my four years here, and from what I here this may be the most talent we’ve ever had at Ohio State,” he said. “But as coach says, talent doesn’t always win. We have to put our talent to work.”

That should be no problem considering the bitter taste left in the team’s mouth after coming so close last year only to be denied repeating as national champions by Oklahoma.

“We won the year before and maybe having that taste of victory wasn’t enough to drive us,” Avery said. “It was certainly different being second while training this whole summer, thinking ‘Wow, we lost by less than a point — we were less than a point away from being national champions again.’ “

He said the team is working diligently not to let the title slip away again.

Some of the younger members of the team have taken especially hard to the rigorous training program so often found in championship teams, Avery said. He mentioned sophomore Cody Trobaugh as someone who has worked above and beyond the call of duty in order to help his team this season.

“We were all so disappointed to lose the NCAAs last year, so most everybody on the team worked harder this offseason,” Trobaugh said. “We’re all concentrating on fixing the little things that went wrong last year.”

Competition starts this weekend, as the team travels to Chicago for the Windy City Invitational, but this first meet will not be looked upon as a must-win situation.