A weekend of NCAA Championship competition resulted in the Ohio State men’s gymnastics team returning to Columbus with a second-place trophy and four Buckeyes receiving All-American honors.

“It was a decent performance, but not what we had hoped for,” sophomore Randy Monahan said. “We are a first-place team.”

Leading the way for the Buckeyes were senior Raj Bhavsar, who came in second in the all-around with a team season-high of 55.3 points; and Monahan, who came in fourth with a career-high of 54.55. Bhavsar, who entered competition as the defending NCAA title-holder, lost the top honor to Oklahoma’s Daniel Furney, who scored 56.1 points.

“I was out earlier this year because of surgery and started training in February,” Bhavsar said. “To put routines together that quickly is pretty tough. I was optimistic going into it.”

Competition began Friday at Temple University with the qualifying rounds. Ohio State used a B team in order to let the all-around competitors rest, coach Miles Avery said. The team finished first, defeating Big Ten champion Penn State to advance to the NCAA Championship.

“It was certainly uplifting to beat them not even using our best guys,” Avery said.

The Buckeyes began the competition Saturday on the parallel bars. A season-high finish of 36.5 secured them second place in the event and started the team at third in the overall tournament.

A shaky performance on high bar dropped OSU to fifth place, as the men experienced trouble gaining points on the routine and sticking landings.

“If we would have hit high bar, we would have won it,” Bhavsar said.

It did not take long for the team to move back into trophy contention as it faced its next event, the floor routine. The Buckeyes, who have been strong in the event all season, scored a 36.95 and a first-place finish, with sophomore Kerry Adderly leading the way. This moved them into third place overall – 2.525 points behind Oklahoma.

The Buckeyes’ season-high score of 36.965 on the pommel horse held them at third, placing them in a position to pull ahead after finishing second on the rings. OSU’s performance on the vault secured the second-place finish in the overall competition.

“We were pretty confident going in there,” Monahan said. “We had been hitting our routines in practice down there, but I think nerves hit some of the guys when they had to compete.”

OSU finished behind Oklahoma (222.6) with 220.7 points, as Penn State held onto third with 219.95 points.

“I’m excited to be the second-best team in the nation, but it is disappointing,” Avery said. “We didn’t fulfill our goal of being national champions. We weren’t able to bring that title back to Ohio State – instead Oklahoma got to do that.”

The top eight finishers in each of Saturday’s events moved on to the event finals on Sunday.

Representing OSU on the floor routine were Adderly and sophomore Cody Trobaugh. Adderly finished third, receiving All-American honors for the second consecutive year. Trobaugh placed eighth, just falling short of receiving honors – which are awarded only to the top six finishers.

Bhavsar and senior Ryan Schwartzkopf competed on the pommel horse, both garnering All-American honors for their performances. By placing second in Saturday’s all-around and in the top six on the rings, Bhavsar walked away with three All-American honors for the competition, ending his OSU career with 10 total. Also competing on the rings were Monahan and Trobaugh.

Freshman Ronald Ferris joined Bhavsar in competing on the parallel bars. Monahan did not receive honors in the individual event, but his finish in the all-around on Saturday made him an All-American.