2021 #NCAAMGym Conference Championships Recap
ECAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
Navy scored within a point of their season high after over a month away from competition to come away with a convincing victory over the field at the ECAC Championships. The Midshipmen outpaced William & Mary, who put up an impressive 392.10, a season high for them, as well as Army and Springfield who both put up scores in the 380s to round out the conference. Missing from the competition was Army junior, Mathew Davis, who placed 2nd in the all-around at the 2019 ECAC Championships.
Navy took home team titles on four of six events, including a convincing victory of nearly three points on the pommel horse. No one in the Navy lineup stood out for their performance on the event, but the team effort clearly paid off.
Ryan McVay (79.20) took home the ECAC all-around crown to lead Navy to its third consecutive conference title. Also earning individual awards for Navy were David Toussaint on floor (14.00), Jake Carlson on rings (13.70), Travis Keller on vault (14.30), and Giovanni Gambatese on high bar (13.60).
After a month off, Navy looks to be in top shape and with a seemingly weak Big Ten field, the Midshipmen could stake a claim for one of the coveted spots in the six-team final come NCAA Championships in a couple weeks.
William & Mary (392.10) had an outstanding day, breaking into the 390s for the first time this season, forcing Navy to watch their back as momentum for the Tribe continues to grow. Andrew Lyubovsky (77.20) led the way for William & Mary en route to his second place finish in the all-around. Lyubovsky also claimed the parallel bars victory (13.60).
Aiden Cuy and Ian Creelman are two other William & Mary gymnasts responsible for the bulk of the scoring on behalf of the Tribe, each contributing four routines to the effort. Cuy (75.60) also finished out an all-around performance to place third in the conference.
Mike Powell and his team have had a tumultuous year and are more than deserving of the tickets they have punched to Minneapolis for the 2021 NCAA Championships.
Army also had a very strong showing, scoring a season high 388.05, to place third despite recent challenges. Notably, Army was without junior standout, Mathew Davis, who as previously mentioned placed second at the 2019 ECAC Championships and who has been the clear MVP of this year’s Army squad.
Army had a full team effort in which no athlete competed more than three events. A highlight for the Black Knights was the pommel horse performance from Matt Martin (14.00) who came away with the title on that event.
Although their season best performance at ECAC Championships was not enough to qualify the Army team to NCAA Championships, a full slate of 15 members from the team managed to qualify into NCAAs as individuals. Individual NCAA qualifiers for Army are Mathew Davis (AA), Corban Barstow (FX, VT), Kalvin Kingshill (FX, HB), Mitchell McHugh (FX), Graham Shaw (FX), Matt Martin (PH, SR), Zachary Mitchell (PH, HB), Joseph Minus (PH), Kiernan Reagan (SR, PB), Mitchell Monahan (SR), Connor Cavanagh (VT), Miguel Aquino (VT, HB), Jacob Nauman (VT), Patrick Armstrong (PB, HB), and Jackson Pophal (PB).
Springfield, put up a season high by over 10 points to finish their 2021 campaign with a 381.75. Dominic Romalho and Trevor Lamberton held the fort down for Springfield scoring 75.05 and 74.75 in the all-around respectively, each counting four routines for the team.
Freshman, Charles Kramer, also had a great day, putting up four solid routines for the Pride. Springfield’s two podium finishes were Colton O’Brien’s third place pommel horse effort (13.20) and John Murphy’s second place vault run (14.25).
BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Michigan Wolverines ran away with this one, capturing their first Big Ten Championship title since 2014. While they were the heavy favorites heading into Saturday, few expected the margin of victory to be the 13 points that it was. Their performance on parallel bars and high bar was far too impressive for the rest of the field to touch, winning the former by just under two points and the latter by just under four.
Outside of his victory at Winter Cup, Cameron Bock has typically finished behind Paul Juda this year. It was Bock this time who shined, capturing a share of the all-around title with Shane Wiskus to go along with titles on pommel horse (14.35) and rings (14.00). While Juda underperformed by his standards, he was still able to provide a top score on Michigan’s two dominant events, taking second on both p bars (14.20) and high bar (13.95).
While the lineups were largely populated by Bock and Juda, the Wolverines showcased a deep squad to fill out the final three spots in each of their rotations. The role gymnasts stepped up and did their job to lift Michigan to victory. It was not the tight finish we have come to expect at Big Ten’s, but the dominant 411.00 win was exciting in its own way.
After regular season and tournament Big Ten titles, Michigan will now look to capture the most coveted of them all at NCAA Championships. Their score from this past Saturday was just behind OU’s 412.75 and Stanford’s 411.55. With arguably tougher judging at Big Ten’s and the relatively off day for Paul Juda, the Wolverines could very well be the national champion favorites.
Coming in second and notching their best performance at Big Tens ever was the Nebraska Cornhuskers. A great pommel horse rotation was the difference maker for their historic night. Cooper Giles led the charge with his 13.50 and was complemented by four other solid sets, none of which went below 12.80.
Other highlights included a second place vault (14.55) from Big Ten Freshman of the year, Taylor Christopulos. His ninth place finish in the all-around (78.45) was fairly far off what he is capable of, but still a great performance in a first ever postseason meet. Nebraska was able to tally the fourth highest rings score in the competition, an event they have historically struggled on. Their ability to keep pace with the field on this event in 2021 has been one of the main contributors to Coach Chmelka’s team’s breakout year.
While a second place finish is impressive, this team can actually do a lot better from a team score perspective. The 66.10 they scored on floor is not representative of their capability on this event as they have scored as high as five points above this mark this season. It is safe to consider this weak floor performance from Saturday night an outlier as Nebraska solidifies their spot as the next best team in the NCAA outside the big three.
Iowa deserves better and their third place finish at the 2021 Big Ten Championship proves that. The same year they were told it was their last as a division one team, the Hawkeyes have made a statement, boasting their best Big Ten finish in fifteen years.
The trio of Bennet Huang (81.55), Evan Davis (80.35), and Stewart Brown (79.40) have been remarkably consistent this year. They placed fourth, seventh, and eighth in the all around respectively. James Friedman, who has flown somewhat under the radar this year as a freshman, was excellent behind the marquee trio. Friedman scored a 76.85 in the all around with scores counting on four events.
Rings was the pivotal event for Iowa where they scored a 67.40, the second best total behind Michigan by a mere three tenths. Peyton Hobson tied for second with a 13.90, an impressive score as the judging was markedly tight. The Hawkeyes have had a history of slowing down come postseason yet no signs of that trend are showing this year. This impressive team will look to carry the momentum into NCAAs where they have an excellent shot at a top five finish.
Rounding out the top four was the University of Illinois. The Illini limped into this competition as they were without two of their top talents, Hamish Carter and Clay Stephens. Expectations were low and they actually exceeded them. If it were not for a disastrous parallel bars rotation, Illinois could have easily taken the second spot in the field.
The highlight of the day for Justin Spring’s team was Michael Fletcher’s meet winning vault. His 14.60 was enough to take the title by just .05 tenths. Connor McCool and Ian Skirkey also had great showings. McCool has been dominant on floor all year and Saturday was no different where he scored a 14.60, good enough to tie for second place. Skirkey hit a great pommel horse set to take second with a 14.30, just shy of the event winner’s 14.35.
Michael Jaroh was the standout performer for Penn State. The freshman took sixth in the all around with an 80.40 to go along with top five finishes on pommel horse (13.60), vault (14.45), and p bars (13.85). Nick Mock also had a good day, tallying a 13.90 on pommel horse to take third place.
The return of Shane Wiskus was not enough of a boost for Minnesota to make noise as a team at Big Tens. They finished in sixth place despite Wiskus being excellent. The olympic hopeful took a share of the all around title with his 84.70 performance to go along with event titles on floor (14.75), p bars (14.40), and high bar (14.05).
After an excellent regular season, Ohio State struggled this past Saturday. Jesse Tyndall, however, has come into his own. Tyndall took fifth in the all around with an 80.40, highlighted by a fourth place finish on floor (14.45) and a fifth place finish on high bar (13.70).
MPSF CHAMPIONSHIPS
In typical Oklahoma fashion, the Sooners brought home their ninth consecutive MPSF Championship. Many thought Stanford would take the victory following their tied competition with the Sooner’s early on in the season, but a competition riddled with falls and a 66.35 on floor left them short of achieving that. The biggest surprise of this competition might arguably be Air Force beating Cal with their 388.35 performance.
The Sooners started off the competition strong with Morgan Seyler’s 14.85 and Gage Dyer’s 14.55 on floor. The energy OU generated on floor was used for the remainder of the meet and hit routines became the name of the game for the Sooners. Their ability to hang with Stanford on vault, and beat them on parallel bars, were key factors that led them to retaining their MPSF title.
Senior, Matt Wenske, showed his upperclassmen experience in his final MPSF Championship by posting three scores above a 14.10. His 14.10 on rings helped OU put up a huge 69.25, a much needed boost after a slow horse run. A multitude of successes on the remaining events left the Sooners with a 412.75. This was the highest score amongst all conferences and they are heading into NCAA’s as the number one seed.
Following 1.20 points behind OU was Stanford. Closing out the competition with a 411.55, the Cardinal’s performance unfortunately fell short of what they were looking for. However, on an individual basis the Cardinal were strong, claiming four event titles from Ian Gunther (PH/R), Blake Sun (PB) and Brody Malone (HB). Brandon Briones did his part in helping the Cardinal with his 82.85 all around performance as well as his fellow classmen, JR Chou, who scored a 13.85 on pommel horse for a second place finish.
Traditionally, the Cardinal have been a strong floor team for the past several years, but it is proving to be their biggest weakness and the difference maker that has cost them two competitions against OU. They tried to make a comeback on their final event, rings, with an impressive 69.75 performance but it wasn’t enough to overtake the Sooners. The Cardinal had a similar MPSF Championship in 2019 but came back to shock the nation at NCAA’s by winning the team title. You can guarantee that they are hungry to do the same and defend their 2019 NCAA Championship title.
Frankie Valentin led the Falcons to their best performance of the year and a third place team finish at the conference championship. Ethan Esval’s 13.35 and Valentine’s 13.15 helped them post a 64.25 on pommel horse which was a game changer that greatly benefitted their team score. The Falcons had the potential to post huge scores on both vault and parallel bars but fell victim to a rough routine on each of these events. This was a struggle Air Force faced all season and they will be looking to improve upon this next year. A highlight routine for the Falcons came from Brandon Bzoskie who scored a big 14.55 on vault. His performance landed him just shy of the podium in fourth place.
Although Air Force had their best performance of the year it was not enough to earn a team spot at NCAA Championships. However, a contingent of 8 Falcons managed to qualify individually into NCAAs. Garrett Braunton (AA), Frankie Valentin (AA), Collin Hickey (FX,), Noah Everett (PH), Scott McMurray (PH), Allan Shadan (SR, PB), Oliver Zavel (SR, PB, HB), and Brandon Bzoskie (VT) were all able to put up strong enough performances throughout the season to earn the honor of competing on the biggest stage of collegiate gymnastics.
MPSFs was not Cal’s strongest competition of the season, and hopefully it helped them shake out the jitters before NCAAs. Floor (62.90), pommel horse (60.55) and rings (63.55) killed the Golden Bears team score. Caleb Rickard’s 14.65 third place finish on vault was the top individual performance of the competition for Cal. Parallel bars and high bar were also successes for Cal where they put up respectable scores of 66.35 and 63.40. Cal will be looking to improve on the first three events at NCAA’s and give some of the B1G teams a run for their money.
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.