Welcome to another episode of Gymnasticsville. I'm your host, Midnight Robin. You're listening to Gymnasticsville on Gymnasticsville.com. Every week you can hear us on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify.
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I'm excited for today's show, okay. We're going to talk about Conavan Wickland World Team member moving back to Sutter Nation, Oklahoma. We also going to talk about Minnesota who plays second last year in CAA's and they looking to keep that streak going. They're released their schedule so we going to analyze it.
We going to look at it. We going to see what they going to be all about. In Oklahoma, sign the top 10 recruit on National Signing Day. We going to end off today's show with team Captain from Cal Berkeley.
He's also in the Canadian national team, Aaron Mahl. What really excites me about today's show is we going to talk about Conavan Wickland for a little bit. All right. Mr.
Redemption himself. If y'all didn't know, Con was out there with championships during this thing. Competing well for his first time being on the world team. But he's moving back to Sutter Nation.
That's right. Well, the last year, Colin Van Wickland has been training at Cypress, Tom Meadows, and he's also been doing some training in preparation for world. He was at the Atlantic Training Center in Colorado Springs. But African-Petean in Doha, it looks like Mark Williams at Conavan Wickland talked it over.
And they agreed that the best place for him to train is back in Sutter Nation, Norman, Oklahoma. And I think this is a good move. I think it's a good move for Colin. I mean, clearly, he was doing something right this past year with his training under Tom Meadows training plan, who was the head coach at Cypress Academy.
And that's where Colin used to train when he was a young buck, you know, going up. But the talent's there in Cypress. And we're going to talk about Cypress in a little bit because of the signing that signed for Oklahoma. They both from Cypress.
But I was there way back in the early of the year. You know, we interviewed Colin, talked about his redemption tour and coming back after not making national team. He was motivated as ever. And it was nice to see Colin back in Cypress from where he used to train.
It was nice to see him kicking it with the Cypress junior team that's coming up. And they got, I mean, Cypress right now has a lot of good studs coming up. I mean, one man, y'all got to listen out for Asher, home. Wow, wow.
He's amazing, Jim is out there. Y'all got to have to check it out. We're going to talk about him later. But Colin's back in Norman, Oklahoma.
First time since he finished his eligibility with Oklahoma and ended with a championship. But I think this is a good move for Colin. But I also think this is a good move for Oklahoma. And I'm going to tell you why.
First off, Alan Bauer. I'm going to say his name, Alan Bauer. I think this move is going to be good for Colin to be under back under Mark Williams. And now he's going to be training with you, one of the top Jimists in the world.
But I think this move has been good for Alan. And I think because Colin and Alan were on that, were seniors together that last year at Oklahoma and they won that dominant national championship title at West Point, New York, West Point Military Academy. But they're going to be back reunited. And I think Colin's, if you all haven't know, Colin's very intense.
Intention in a good way. I mean, he does not like to lose. And Colin's all about his business, which is performing on the floor. So I feel that with Colin back in Norman, training with Alan Bauer, it's going to be good.
I feel that they're both going to push each other to the max, which is definitely needed. So they can all up their difficulty, hire their odds of making that next world team and maybe the Olympic team in 2020. But let's not forget that you're going to be done in April and you'll it set his sights on 2020. So now you're going to be having your old out, Alan Bauer and Condem Wiggling who are all on the senior national team right now, training together, pushing each other, pushing themselves to the max to see if they can get to that next level, which is, you know, they're all experienced fourth place at World Championships team.
They all experienced that for the first time. Being from Oklahoma, they used to win in championships, but they were off the Pulled Emmett Worlds. Okay. And I know those guys aren't too happy about that.
So the fact that these three senior national team members have reunited and back training together, I think their gymnastics is going to be better for what you turn is going to be great for team USA. So I'm looking forward to seeing Colin Van Wiggling and Alan Bauer take their gymnastics to another level this year and pushing each other and getting the most out of each other. And we're going to have Colin on the show here next week because I still want to get some insight on how these guys feel they performed at World Championships. Because I've been hearing the buzz from everybody, you know, maybe if this person was on the team, they could have done better.
Maybe if that person was on our team, they could have done better. But at the end of the day, let's be real. Okay. Team USA was 1.8 points away from third place.
Okay. If you don't have that fall, Pop Wars by Sam and Akash has a cleaner set on P bars. They would have met. Okay.
They would have met. So they were right there. Okay. They were right there.
Minnesota, men's gymnastics team has released their 2019 competition schedule. This year's schedule includes four regular season home meets. It will also be the first year that the Big Ten Conference will honor a regular season champion and men's gymnastics. This is going to be an epic season with the first ever Big Ten regular season champions being crowned, said head coach from Minnesota Mike Burns.
We'll be hosting Michigan and the first dual meet of the season. And then we host Penn State and Iowa the last weekend of the season. Those two meet while the huge bearing on the regular season championship. Home and band will be a part of our success this year.
Now I'm looking forward to competing in front of the best gymnastics fans in the nation. The first chance you'll see Minnesota compete will be at the Matoree Pavilion will be at the annual alumni meet on Saturday, January 5th at 1 p.m. The alums have a 51 year win streak. That's amazing.
See and I want to talk about that. Alright. And I got to tip my head off to Minnesota for doing an alumni meet. Alright.
Well I share an opportunity to be at the alumni meet for Ohio State and it was amazing. It was amazing. You know, Mike Canales was out there. He's a national champion for Oklahoma for Ohio State.
Okay. Dr. Canales, excuse me, he's a doctor now. He's a bad boy.
He's a bad doctor too. He's good. You know, Ron Ferris was out there doing his signature skills. So I like the fact that Minnesota does an alumni meet and I would love more teams to do an alumni meet.
I think it's a way to keep the alumni involved. I mean, clearly the alumni shouldn't be doing the same gymnastics they were doing when they were on the team. Alright. Because nobody wants to see any Ole Jimists get hurt.
Alright. I don't want to see anyone over the age of 40 chucking any releases on a high bar or I don't want to see any triple anything. The only triple triple I want to see in a meet is maybe like a triple log roll. Okay.
Because if these alumni meet, it's not really about the difficulty like that. If you over 40. Alright. Because if Oklahoma had alumni meet, I'm going, you ain't going to see midnight doing triple backs.
I may do a layout, but you know what? I'm going to stick that layout. I'm going to stick it. I'm going to give y'all that head now.
Yo, he just stuck that layout. Because I'm telling you one thing. I'm not coming back for me to alumni meet on crutches. Nah.
Midnight don't roll like that. Alright. But the gophers are going to start the regular season with a pair of road meets at the Rocky Mountain Open in the Windy City meet early January. Okay.
So the gophers have a slam pack schedule. We talked about it. They're going to be starting off at the Rocky Mountain. Oklahoma is going to be in Nebraska.
Ohio State. They all going to be there. Alright. But I'm really looking forward to see how Minnesota reacts from their historic performance at NCAA's last year.
Okay. My keys to Minnesota doing that or better next year is clearly any team out there needs to stay healthy. But not only that is that you need to get the best performance out of those studs. Alright.
Shane Wiscus is a big stud for them. Alright. Justin Karstak. Huge stud.
The Tally Con. Looking for him. Alright. Listen, Minnesota has what it needs to be very competitive next year and potentially win the Big Ten Championship.
But I think a lot of it has to do is with their health. And I'm very curious to see how they're going to perform at the Rocky Mountain Open. This is the first year that I think the stakes for Oklahoma are high. But for Minnesota, it's a win win.
If you look at it from Minnesota standpoint, okay, they got second place to Oklahoma NCAA Championships. Now they get an opportunity to see Oklahoma not at the end of the season, but at the beginning of the season. So if you beat Oklahoma, great. But if you lose by only a little bit, that has to tell you, hey, we're not that far off from the national champs.
So I think if Minnesota can go out there and push in pressure on Oklahoma, it's a win-win either way. Because usually Minnesota doesn't even see Oklahoma. So they get an opportunity to see what they need to do to prepare for the met at the end of the year. I think this was a great strategy by Mike Burns to go out to the Rocky Mountain Open.
He gives his team an opportunity to see the champs at the beginning of the year and figure out what they need to do to beat them. So look, I'm looking forward to that matchup week one. National Sign-In Day is here. Oklahoma signs, National Team Member, Lazarus Barnhill and Jack Freeman.
Now we talked about it earlier and although Oklahoma did not land a top five recruit, they did land a top ten recruit in Lazarus Barnhill. And I like his gymnastics. And let's think about this. Lazarus from Cypress.
He was on the junior national team this past year. He was part of the Pacific Rim gold medal team. That one out there. So I think this is a good pick up for Oklahoma because they got a gymnast that is an all-rounder.
So he can potentially contribute on all six events. He has international experience. And the one thing that I've noticed from watching the tape on Barnhill is that this guy knows how to land. I'm looking at some of the routines from the Pack of Rim championships.
And he pretty much stuck a lot of his landings. And that's what I like. And that is what Mark Williams likes. His Oklahoma, you know when it comes down to crunch time, you got to know how to land.
Okay. So the fact that Oklahoma signs a top ten recruit, powerful all-rounder, he's a tall gymnast. So he has clean lines. So you know if he's going to hit his routine, he's going to maximize his execution score.
All right. So I think that was a big pick up for Lazarus for Oklahoma to pick up Lazarus. Okay. And let's talk about Jack Freeman, another Cypress kid.
What is it with these Cypress kids signed with Oklahoma? I mean, the lineage of great Cypress gymnasts to go into Oklahoma and do bigger and better things is ridiculous. Jonathan Horton, Chris Brooks, Colin Van Wicklett, Levi Anderson, Hunter Justice, so many great gymnasts have come from Cypress and go into Oklahoma and we're seeing it again here. Jack Freeman, he went to US championships.
Okay. And what I like about Jack is that he's going to contribute right off the bat, probably going to unleash three events. Okay. Powerful tumbler, nice tuck double double on floor, great vaulter.
Okay. Does it double twist on vault? But the one thing that I think Mark Williams is going to love about this kid, which is why he signed him, is his high bar. Jack can swing on high bar.
Nice lead out to Kachapaz, shout out to Kachapaz, shout out to Kachapaz, nice dismount. Jam handstand. You know that Jam is going to turn into a half talk or a full talk soon. You know he's probably working in the gym.
So I think Jack was a good pick up, has high upside. I'm very curious to see what some of these other teams signed because as of right now, there's only a few teams posted their national signings on the site. But for my sources, my college executive sources is that probably by the end of next week, we'll have a really good indication and by that point, all the paperwork and all the athletes going to be signed with their schools and the schools going to be able to send out those press releases and we'll be able to analyze who had the best recruits of this year signing peer right now Stanford is on top. Okay.
I can't really judge who is second and third at this point because it's just, I don't really know who signed it. We don't know yet, but probably by the end of next week, we'll definitely know more. But I would have to say right now that signing Jack Lazarus was a good move for Oklahoma to solid all around, all around us that have competed at US championships with international experience. We'll see what's going to go down.
Now I want to talk about Kyle Berkeley, air mall, all right, because there's nothing more I like to see is Jimists from other countries in the NCAA system. That's what I love because it just makes it that much more competitive. All right. Because we all know NCAA gymnastics is the best gymnastics of the year around the world.
All right. And I know there's a level of excitement about the Olympics and I know there's a level of excitement about world championships because of who's competing there. Okay. When you're seeing Uchi Moore, when you're seeing the Chinese gymnastics and Japanese gymnastics, the European gymnastics, you get excited about that.
But when it comes to a team competition, nothing more exciting than NCAA gymnastics. I get more aimed up at NCAA championships than I do at the Olympic Games. Why? Because the Olympic Games only 3 out of 3 count.
I'm sorry, but that's a small team. Yeah, there's some energy, some energy. But you know what's energy when you are about to salute and raise your hand and you got 13 other people on your team, chair near butts off for you to go and hit your routine. That's excitement right there.
That's excitement. That's pressure. That's drama. That's everything you need is here at NCAA.
So it's great. But Aaron Mall from Canada, he competed this year at the Canadian National Championship. He's going to talk about that. He also competed at the Canadian World Team Trials.
He's going to talk about that. And he also had a look at a reunion with a club teammate who is now on the team. And we're going to talk about that. All right.
You're Master's will. We're back. We're here at Kyle Berkeley's trainer facility. I'm here with senior captain Aaron Mall.
How you doing? I'm doing well. You had a busy summer. Can you talk a little bit about your at the Canadian National Championships?
You had a team. Can you talk about that experience and have a summer with you? Yeah. So after NCAA Championships, I had about a month to get ready for Canadian Nationals.
So it's pretty tough actually coming down after like a long season and picking it back up right away. And then Canadian Nationals, and all around it didn't go as well as I hoped. I had a couple mistakes but I managed to fall by the four finals and then come second and four finals. So that was pretty good.
And then I achieved my goal of qualifying for World Championship Trials. All right. Sweet. So that was at the end of July.
Okay. How did that go for you? It was also not the greatest but it's a valuable learning experience for sure. Just like being in that pressure, like being with all the top guys going into the next year, next season.
All right. Let's talk a little bit last year. You guys had a great year last year. Can you talk about some of the differences between competing for Canada and this competing for college and masses?
Honestly, it's not too different. Same protopoints. I'm pretty much doing the same routines in college that I am internationally. Definitely competing in college and competing every weekend gives me the numbers that I need to be confident when I go out and compete internationally.
Okay. All right. So, you know, this year is a new year like every year of the year. What are you excited most about this upcoming season?
I definitely think we've got a pretty strong team this year. We've got like a lot of talent, a lot of depth. So as long as we can stay healthy and we just grind through other preseason, I think we can shock a lot of people next year, hopefully. Nice.
You know, every year with that excitement, you also get to meet a new freshman coming up. What freshman are you looking for coming into the Kentucky this year? We've got a pretty strong class, but definitely my guy, Darren, he's my club teammate from back home. I grew up with him.
So, I would like to think that I had an influence in him coming here. So, I'm definitely excited to see what he can do. Wow. So, let's talk about that.
Darren. So, how long have you guys were our club teammates for? Talk a little bit about him. Probably over 10 years.
Wow. Yeah. So, since he was literally since he started gymnastics and I've been there for a couple years, we've grown up together and then for a while, it's just us and Jim. He was the oldest and he was the second oldest.
So, we definitely grew a lot together. All right. Cool, cool. Now, a little bit more, you know, this year's season.
What match-up is he looking forward to this year? Is there anything that kind of, you know, definitely our rivals always stand for it. Okay. I think that we have a good enough team that we can definitely challenge on this year.
We haven't beaten them in a couple years, but I would like to go head to head with them this year. Nice. And this is your last year's senior year. I mean, what was it like competing as, you know, for Cal?
It's great. Nothing, nothing compares to this really. I've been to a couple of international meets, like nothing to be with the team. Everybody's supporting you.
A lot of excitement. So, I love your team. I'm sad to see you go, but hopefully this last year. It goes by fast, right?
Two fast, right? All right. If we had one word to describe, your team, this team has competing this year, what would it be? Exciting.
I think we're going to bring a lot to the table that we might not have done in previous years. So, I think we've got some big skills. It's definitely exciting to watch. All right.
All right, the match is real. Airmal, team captain, Cal Berkeley. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Appreciate it. All right.