GYMNASTICS NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS : UCLA Qualifies for Team Finals

John Roethlisberger and Jay Caputo led Minnesota to a season-high 286.05 points and first place in the team preliminaries of the NCAA gymnastics championships Thursday.

Minnesota, which finished third in the country last year and has never won the national title, will be joined by UCLA and Nebraska in today’s team finals.

Scott Keswick and Chris Waller each scored 9.75 on the horizontal bar to lead UCLA to a 48.25 team score on the event, propelling the Bruins to second place overall with a 284.50 score. Nebraska finished with 284.00 points, outdistancing Iowa’s 281.00.

Minnesota’s Roethlisberger finished third in the all-around and Jay Caputo tied for fourth.

Mike Racanelli of Ohio State scored a 58.15 in the individual all-around competition to lead heading into Saturday’s compulsories. Racanelli, second to Nebraska’s Patrick Kirksey in last year’s all-around, finished 0.45 points ahead of Luis Lopez of New Mexico. Kirksey, who fell at the end of his floor exercise, scored a 9.3 on the floor and a 9.2 on the high bar to finish 10th. The top 24 all-around finishers advanced to Saturday’s finals.