Week 9 #NCAAMGym Recap Presented by TURN
What happened this past weekend in the world of NCAA men’s gymnastics? Look no further than the #NCAAMGym Weekly Recap, presented by TURN.
Minnesota @ Michigan
Michigan handily defeated Minnesota in a decisive B1G matchup that cemented the Wolverines’ lead in the conference race.
Despite a middling high bar rotation to close out the meet, the Wolverines put up a 408.9, a strong total for any team’s first five-up, five-count competition. That score tied Ohio State’s for the best in the B1G last weekend.
Michigan outpaced the Gophers from the very beginning. By the end of the second rotation, the Wolverines had amassed a roughly 10-point lead and showed no signs of slowing down. Paul Juda and Jacob Moore led the floor effort for Michigan, turning in a 14.5 and 14.35, respectively, and the Wolverines swept the podium on pommel horse, led by another strong routine from senior Mack Lasker (14.0). Michigan’s 70.7 on floor was a season-high.
Michigan was no doubt impressive on floor and horse, but maybe more significant was how much Minnesota struggled on those two. The Gophers tallied just a 61.9 on horse, their second-lowest score of the season, and their 64.55 on floor was more than six points behind Michigan’s score on the event. It was also Minnesota’s lowest score on the event this season.
The Gophers bounced back on vault with a big season-high of 72.55. They also outpaced the Wolverines on rings, where their 68.1 earned them another season-high. But they were still nowhere near accounting for the 10-point deficit they’d fallen into after floor and horse. After mistakes on parallel bars and high bar, Minnesota finished with a 396.3, their second-lowest team total of the season.
Michigan, meanwhile, put up a respectable 67.25 on rings and a season-high 71.9 on vault. Their 67.85 on p-bars was a decline from their last two meets, where they had topped 70, but they still beat Minnesota by about four points on the event. Michigan suffered mistakes on high bar, but by that time the meet was well decided. Jonathan Liu and Juda were the exceptions on high bar: they went first and second with scores of 13.8 and 13.75, respectively.
Minnesota’s standout freshman Donte McKinney took one of the Gophers’ three event titles with a 14.95 on vault. Shane Wiskus, who was coming off a huge Winter Cup performance, won rings and p-bars with a 14.45 and 14.6, respectively. Wiskus went 82.3 all-around.
The Wolverines face Illinois and Penn State this Saturday. Minnesota is off.
Navy @ Ohio State
Ohio State continues to impress, posting a 408.9 this past weekend to fend off a surging Navy team. The Buckeyes have now scored over the 408-mark three-straight meets and find themselves in the top-seven on every event, minus vault, highlighted by a No. 2 ranking on high bar. Their No. 11 ranking on vault is interesting when thinking about this team’s ceiling. If they can pick up the slack on an event which is considered to be the easiest to post a big number, they could solidify themselves as a top team in the B1G.
Speaking of their struggles on vault, the Buckeyes posted a 70.3 which was over two points lower than Navy’s total. This was one of just two events they lost, the other being floor where the disparity was only two tenths. The freshman duo of Justin Ah Chow and Kazuki Hayashi impressed again, each taking an event title (Ah Chow - PB, 14.1 and Hayashi - FX, 14.4). Max Andryushchenko, who has not competed much this year, added a rings title with a 13.8.
Luke Smigliani is beginning to emerge as one of the top pommel horse guys in the country. He won the title, tying teammate Rihard Trams, with a 13.8 and is now ranked No. 9 in the country. Angel Leon continued his incredible run on high bar, scoring a huge 14.4 to take the event. Leon is now No. 2 in the country and a legitimate contender to take the NCAA title come April.
In a meet where Navy was expected to have a chance at taking down a B1G opponent, they put up only their second sub-400 performance of the season. A disappointing outcome but certainly nothing to overreact about. The Midshipmen only counted three scores in the 11s in their first five-up, five-count performance, but a slew of 12s kept them far from their ceiling.
Navy had one event title on the day with a 14.7 vault from Travis Keller. The sophomore Josh Williams was very outstanding. Williams tied for third on floor (14.1) and took second place on rings (13.75). The highly-touted recruit continues to get better as his career goes along. The Midshipmen came up short but will continue to make their top-ten presence known as the season moves along.
California @ Stanford
Stanford kicked off the second half of their season with a commanding win over Cal. The Cardinal put up a 411.2 for a 20+ point win and the top team score of the weekend.
Stanford didn’t hit any season-highs but managed sweeps on four events: floor, rings, parallel bars and high bar. Sophomore Ian Gunther was a three-event winner (PH — 13.85; SR — 13.8, tie; HB — 13.65). Senior Bailey Perez (FX — 14.55), junior Andrew Bitner and RS-sophomore Trevor DiGerolamo (SR — 13.8, tie), freshman Riley Loos (V — 14.7) and sophomore Brody Malone (PB — 14.55) also earned titles.
Cal fell below the 390 mark for the first time since Jan. 18 and were particularly hurt by rough performances on pommel horse and rings. Their 63.75 on rings was their lowest score on the event so far this season, while their horse score of 60.05 was their third-lowest of the year.
The Bears had runners-up on two events. Freshman Will Lavanakul took second on horse with a 13.7 and senior Asad Jooma was second on vault with a 14.65.
Stanford faces Air Force and Rocky Mountain this Saturday. Cal hosts Navy.
Illinois @ Iowa
During Week 9 of the 2020 NCAA season, Carver-Hawkeye Arena was home to an intense and exciting duel between No.6 Illinois and No.9 Iowa. Both teams battled until the very last rotation and in the end the Fighting Illini and the Hawkeyes had to settle with a draw after posting impressive 403.05 team totals. Throughout Sunday afternoon, the event totals for both teams were extremely balanced as Illinois managed to win three events (floor, pommel horse and vault), while Iowa won the other three. The difference maker in this competition, however, was both pommel horse and high bar. On horse the FIllini edged the Hawkeyes by 2.9 points, while the Hawkeyes topped the Illini by 3.0 points on high bar.
Floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings event titles all went to gymnasts from Illinois. Senior Sebastian Quiana and freshmen Connor McCool claimed the floor exercise together after scoring massive 14.7’s. This is the highest floor score for both gymnasts this season. Sophomore Ian Skirkey claimed the horse title after he also scored a season-best 14.35. Senior Danny Graham’s 14.15 on rings was enough for the event title. Quiana’s 14.3 on vault was enough for a second place finish, while his teammate Evan Manivong was just 0.05 behind him in third. Graham was just 0.2 away from the parallel bars event title and had to settle for second, while Josh Cook placed third on high bar with a 13.65. In a week’s time, the Fighting Illini will host Michigan and Penn State for their Senior Night.
Just like the Illini, Iowa would take home three individual events titles. Mitchell Mandozzi’s 14.4 on vault was enough for the event title as it edged out second place by a tenth. Nicholas Merryman won the parallel bars event title with a 13.8 and his teammate, Bennet Huang, took third with a 13.45. Along with his third place finish on parallel bars, Huang would take the high bar event title with an impressive 13.85 and his teammate, Mandozzi, would add a second place finish (13.75) to his vault title. The only gymnasts who took part in the all-around for this competition were from Iowa. Huang’s 81.3 placed him at the top and his two teammates, Carter Tope (79.4) and Evan Davis (79.05), were not too far away from him. Next week the Hawkeyes travel to Ohio State where they will take on the Buckeyes as well as Northern Illinois.
Penn State @ Nebraska
Penn State led by over four points after four rotations, but fell short to Nebraska by a final score of 406.95-403.2. The Cornhuskers showed just how strong they are on parallel bars and high bar, closing out with scores of 68.25 and 67.25, respectively. Griffin Kehler anchored both and placed second on parallel bars (13.95) and third on high bar (13.7).
Evan Hymanson was also excellent in the final two rotations. He took the parallel bars title with a huge 14.4 and took fourth on high bar with a 13.5. Beyond a strong finish, the real difference in this one was Nebraska’s ability to put up a solid number on rings. They posted a season high 66.4 to boost their season average to 65.82. They have been less than stellar on this event in the past and improvements are a very positive sign for their ability to compete for a championship.
Charlie Giles has been a bit of a sleeper this season. He competed on floor, pommel horse and vault for an average score of 14.25. Evan Kriley stood out on pommel horse where he placed second (13.7) and is now ranked No. 22 and rising quickly.
The Nittany Lions could have won this meet if not for their sloppy finish. 7/10 scores in the 12s on the final two events is usually not enough to close out a B1G meet. As a result, Penn State suffered their first loss of the season and now find themselves with a much more difficult path to a B1G regular season title.
There were still highlights, starting with rings where they put up a season high 68.0. Penn State has struggled on this event in 2020, atypical as they have been dominant here for years. The nice bounce back was led by Isaac Hammett (14.6) who now moves to No. 1 in the country. Parker Clayton also had a strong set as he placed third with a 14.0.
Floor was also a bright spot where Kaleb Booth took the title with a 14.65 en route to a 71.05 team title. This included the return of Sam Zakutney to the floor lineup where he scored a 13.9. Stephen Nedoroscik still managed to post a 14.65 on pommel horse to win the title with one of his worst sets of the season — he is that good. Penn State will have to find a way to close out meets if they want to be considered a top team in the Big Ten.
Air Force @ Army
Army put up a big season-high to earn a statement win over Air Force at home last weekend.
The Black Knights tallied a 395.95 for a 10+ point win over the Falcons. They somewhat surprisingly didn’t have a season-high event score but rather were carried by a consistent performance throughout that said a lot about the team’s readiness amid the five-up, five-count format. Their 63.65 on horse was their lowest event total, but it was less than a point away from the season-high they put up on the event at the West Point Open.
On the way to their win, Army scored four event titles. Mathew Davis took two (FX — 14.5, PB — 14.45) and Rex Scott took two (V — 14.3, HB — 13.6). Davis also put up a 79.7 all-around.
The Falcons’ 385.1 was their second-highest score of the season so far and, like it was for Army, a strong performance for the first meet in which a score couldn’t be dropped. Air Force scored season-highs on rings, parallel bars and high bar and could’ve kept it a lot closer had it not been for a rough pommel horse rotation.
Frankie Valentin won horse with a 13.75 and teammate Noah Everett was close behind with a 13.5. The Falcons also had a solid rotation on rings with Ethan Esval (13.8) and Brandon Bzoskie (13.55) earning first and second.
Army hosts William & Mary on Saturday, and Air Force hosts Stanford and Rocky Mountain.
Sun Devil Classic
Arizona State dominated the field this past weekend at the Sun Devil classic. They posted their sixth straight score of 380+ with a 384.15. It should also be noted that this was without Kiwan Watts on rings and high bar where he is currently ranked No. 21 and No. 4 in the country, respectively. He still put up first place finishes on vault (14.25) and parallel bars (13.3).
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Arizona State had a great pommel horse rotation in their win. The aforementioned Watts took second with a 13.8 to go along with a first place finish from Kyle Burriss (14.1) and a third place finish from Kirk Malm (13.6). Malm also had a first place finish on high bar with a 12.95.
The 384.15 from the Sun Devils in the first week of five-up, five-count is especially impressive considering that they were forced to count a 9.6 on pommel horse (in an otherwise great rotation) and a 10.8 on parallel bars. The nature of the format is unforgiving but if the big mistakes are avoided in the future, Arizona State could see a large bump in their team score.
Washington took second place scoring a 368.15, a significant regression from their previous performance of 382.9. It is safe to consider this an outlier considering a couple tough scores that they were forced to count in the post Winter Cup format, similar to Arizona State. Clean up a few of these large mistakes and they could be right back at the 380 mark.
Ben Bloom was the highlight of the day, scoring a 76.05 to win the all around and garner GymACT Gymnast of the Week honors. He also took fourth place on pommel horse (13.45), fourth place on vault (13.75) and third place on parallel bars (12.8). Losing a talent like Nathan Tsuji to graduation is never easy, but Bloom has done a tremendous job to fill the void as the stand out all-arounder.
Rocky Mountain took third place with a 347.35. They were highlighted by Tyson Grover who took second in the all around with a 72.9. NorCal United rounded out the field with a 340.95. They featured a fourth place finish on vault from Brandon Garcia (13.75).
