Week 2 Recap
West Point Open
Penn State beat out Navy for the West Point Open title by a mere 2.2 points this past Friday night. Superior performances on both pommel horse and vault were the difference makers for the Nittany Lions. Matt Cormier was impressive, winning the floor title with a 14.00 to go along with a first place finish on high bar (13.70). Fellow sophomore, Ethan Dick, also stood with his performances on pommel horse (1st - 13.95) and p bars (1st - 13.55). The return of Kaleb Booth to the vault lineup paid dividends as he took the title with a 14.45.
Getting Colin Wingrove and Booth back in the lineup added a much needed boost for this team, but points were still left on the floor. Despite scoring well on pommel horse, a couple of falls hampered Penn State here, mistakes that can be fixed to solidify them as a top horse team in the country. We also saw the debut of freshman Josh Karnes, who competed on parallel bars. While he fell on his dismount, his full potential was on display and Head Coach Randy Jepson is surely excited to get him into more lineups.
Navy has been surging over the past few years and high expectations for this trend to continue loomed this preseason. Kip Simons’ team did not disappoint in their 2022 debut, coming within striking distance of taking down a Big Ten team. The typical strategy seems to be in play, with no one Midshipmen competing on more than four events. Josh Williams had a great day, highlighted by his first place performance on rings (14.00). We also saw the long awaited debut of highly coveted freshman, Isaiah Drake. Drake started his career on the right foot, competing on four events and averaging a 13.09.
It was the host team that rounded out the top three, posting a 30 point improvement over their season opener. Army’s 388.65 was not only their best performance of 2022 thus far, but higher than any number they put up in 2021. Mathew Davis dominated, posting a 78.45 in the all-around to finish first. Steven Manalokis provided a big boost to the Black Knights score on both floor and vault. The sophomore placed third on the former (13.65) and fifth on the latter (14.30).
After bringing in an impressive freshmen class, expectations for Springfield’s season debut were high. They performed quite well, posting a 378.55 to place fourth. This number tracks closer to where they ended last season than where they started. Expect Matt Davis’ team to break into the mid 380s as the season goes on. The ever steady Dominic Ramalho paced this team, scoring a 76.30 to place fourth in the all-around. The Pride looked great on high bar, with Kyle Lukaesko finishing third (13.45) and Jaden Laubstein fourth (13.20).
William & Mary took fifth place with a 362.40. Christian Marsh was the highlight, taking fourth place on p bars (13.15) and fifth place in the all-around (75.55). Temple posted a 337.05 and were highlighted by Zac Raymond who posted a 69.90 in the all-around.
Rocky Mountain Open
In this exciting match-up, including Oklahoma, Stanford, Nebraska, Air Force, ASU, and Rocky Mountain Pride, the number three ranked Sooners rallied to take the victory over the defending National Champions of Stanford University by .2 and the number four ranked Nebraska Huskers by 5.65.
Oklahoma opened up their season by posting the highest score in the NCAA thus far, with a 407.70. Their impressive performance was led by their all-arounders Fuzzy Benas, Zach Nunez, and Raydel Gamboa. Benas captured the individual all-around title in his first collegiate competition with an 83.80. His victory quickly proved that he will be a strong All-American candidate come April. Close behind his performance were teammates Nunez (81.70) and Gamboa (80.60).
While Oklahoma's all-arounders carried a heavy load, strong performances from Spencer Goodell (FX), Vitaliy Guimaraes (HB), and Jack Freeman (HB) all helped the Sooners capture the team title. A key takeaway from OU’s performance is that they aren’t anywhere close to hitting their max potential. As the season evolves, we will likely see event specialists making a bigger impact in the lineups, and Senior National Team member Vitaliy Guimaraes back in the all-around. Guimaraes only competed on three events this past weekend, not including arguably his two best events, floor and vault.
The Sooners next stop will be another tough one as they face off against Stanford on the road in California.
The number one ranked Stanford Cardinal fell short of first, finishing up in second place with a 407.50. The depth of their roster was tested as many of their key competitors were missing including Brody Malone, Ian Gunther, Andrew Bitner, Matt Szot, and Blake Wilson. Although they faced some challenges in this competition, they displayed an immense amount of difficulty which could prove fatal to the rest of the NCAA later in the season.
As individuals, the Cardinal walked away with four event titles. Freshman, Mark Berlaga, captured the still rings title (14.20), Curran Phillips on vault (14.70), Blake Sun on parallel bars (14.80), and JR Chou on high bar(13.90). Ian Lasic-Ellis took charge for the Cardinal in the AA position and closed out his collegiate debut with a fifth place finish (79.30).
The Huskers closed out the competition in third place with a 402.05. Floor (68.35) and high bar (67.35) proved to be the strong suits for Nebraska along with some key standout routines on pommel horse.
Sam Phillips led the way in the all-around with his fourth place finish (80.20). Phillips also captured the floor title with a 14.20. On pommel horse, Charlie and Cooper Giles captured the first and second place positions with respectable scores of 14.45 and 14.30. Nebraska struggled on rings with the exception of Dylan Young who posted a 14.05.
Heading into their January 29th competition, Nebraska will be looking to fine tune their line-ups as they face off against Michigan on the road. This competition will be a huge opportunity to establish their status in the B1G.
ASU opened up their season with a 375.90. Leading the way was Jordan Williams in the all-around. Williams closed out the night in sixth place, scoring a 76.05. The Sun Devils competition highlights came on pommel horse. Kyle Burriss led the way with a 13.90 and Sean McClure was just one tenth behind with a 13.80. As a team, they impressively posted a 65.30 on horse, matching that of Stanford.
Air Force had a slow start to their season after not competing full lineups on FX, VT, and HB along with a lack of hit routines. Garrett Braunton’s fifth place finish on rings (13.75) was the highlight of the competition for the Falcons. Patrick Hoopes’ 13.50 on pommel horse was another key routine for the Falcons.
Nathan Yearous led the way for Rocky Mountain Pride in the AA scoring a 73.45. Dyson Adsit played a role on floor, posting the team high. As a group, they were missing several routines and ended the day with a 241.45.
Windy City Invite
Windy City was all about Michigan (398.60) this year, with a tight battle for second between Ohio State (387.70) and Illinois (385.95). The GymACT had a slew of strong teams put up impressive showings as well. In their first season as GymACT teams, Iowa (365.80) and Minnesota (338.50) both made statements to round out the top five teams in the contest. Northern Illinois (309.55) and UIC (301.10) also competed against this power packed field and will look to improve upon their performances as the season progresses.
Cameron Bock remains absent from the Michigan lineups so far this year, but junior standout, Paul Juda has taken the reins to lead the Michigan team. High start values and hit routines from the Wolverine pommel horse lineup got the meet underway for Interim Head Coach, Yuan Xiao. Markus Shears led the way with a 14.15. Paul Juda got his team fired up after he scraped his way through an early season set to add 13.30 to the Wolverine tally. A team pommel horse score of 65.45 put Michigan in a good spot to take the win. Rings (66.80) was also solid for the Wolverines. Highlights there came from Javier Alfonso (13.75) and Colin Stenger (13.85). Big vaults from David Wolma (14.65) and Nick Guy (14.75) cemented Michigan’s lead.
Parallel bars was a little more challenging for Michigan as Vigil Watkins led the team with a 14.05. A team score of 65.05 on parallel bars is good, but not what we are used to expecting out of Michigan. High bar (64.85) was also a bit of an up and down event. Paul Juda and Evengy Siminiuc both put up big numbers scoring a 14.20 and 13.90, respectively. Ending on floor had its ups and downs as well. A team score of (65.90) was accomplished with the help of Jacob Moore (14.05) and Nick Guy (13.95).
In the all-around competition Adam Wooten put up a 73.75 for fifth place and David Willet showed out with a 77.35 to take home the crown. When Paul Juda returns to the all-around and Cameron Bock makes his way into the lineups, Michigan will surely score much higher. This was a solid start to the season for the Wolverines, but there is clearly work to be done if Michigan wants to challenge the likes of Nebraska, Stanford, and Oklahoma.
The rings rotation (62.80) for the Ohio State was not a great way to start the season. An unfortunate knee injury to Angel Leon early in the rotation hampered the Buckeye’s ability to reach their potential on the event. However, Junior, Donovan Hewitt, stepped up to the plate and followed Leon up with a 13.50 to lead Ohio State’s rings lineup. Hewitt continued his leadership and push to place his team at the top with a 14.50 vault run.
Parallel bars was another rough rotation for Rustam Sharipov’s Buckeyes. A meager 64.30 is well below the potential of this team. High bar was ever so slightly better, this time led by Junior Jesse Tyndall (14.55). Floor (62.65), was another tough rotation but by the time the Buckeyes made it to pommel horse, Illinois was right on their heels and headed to rings. One hard fought routine resulted in a tough score, but big routines from Andrew Brower (13.65) and Trevor Cummings (13.55) boosted Ohio State and held them over Illinois for a second place finish.
This was a solid start for Ohio State, but there is lots of work to be done. All-Around performances from Justin Ah Chow and Jesse Tyndall are anticipated and will provide some big scores on events that were somewhat weak for the Buckeyes at Windy City.
High bar and vault kept Illinois in this competition, but struggles everywhere else made it impossible for them to catch up with Ohio State or Michigan. Team scores of 63.20 on floor, an abysmal 58.65 on pommel horse, and a 63.10 on parallel bars put Justin Spring’s team out of contention at the Windy City Invitational. As rough as those rotations were, there were some bright spots for Illinois. A vault rotation of 69.90 is good news for Illini nation as is their 66.60 on high bar. Consistency on those two events matched with improvements on the other four will surely lead to success for Illinois.
The potential of this Illinois team is significantly higher than what they showed at Windy City and we will look to see them increase both start value and execution throughout the year. If Will Hauke can make his way back into the lineups, that will also improve their ceiling.
In their first showing as a GymACT team, Iowa impressed. Sure, there were some issues, but the Hawkeyes made a statement that they are going to challenge for GymACT titles. Some large errors were made throughout the competition that will be easily corrected throughout the season and will result in a greatly improved team score. Beyond woes on floor and pommel horse, the Hawkeye’s put up solid numbers on the back four events to finish with a 365.80.
The all-around competition was successful for Iowa as well as Evan Davis (76.75) and James Friedman (75.30) placed second and third respectively. Iowa was forced to make some adjustments this off season and some of their event specialists had to get back into training their weaker events. As those guys get comfortable, we should see Iowa’s score trend up to compete with the likes of Washington and ASU.
Minnesota also put up their first showing as a GymACT team and showed some solid gymnastics. Kellen Ryan led the team and placed sixth in the all-around. A 14.65 on vault out of Ryan got the Gophers excited and led to a competitive 65.25 team score on vault, which is undoubtedly Minnesota’s best event this year. From the looks of it, Minnesota will need to make some adjustments in order to be competitive with the upper echelon of the GymACT. The return of Minnesota powerhouse, Yaroslav Pochinka, boosts the experience level of the team and will surely help guide this young GymACT program into the future. Freshman, Kellen Ryan, made a statement as the future of the Gopher gymnastics program with his team leading scores on vault, high bar, and the all-around.
NIU got their 2022 season underway with a team score of 309.55. Zach Cipra, David Dortmund, and Micah Puckett led the charge for the Huskies. Challenges on pommel horse and rings put the Huskies in a hole that they were not able to climb out of. Like some of the other GymACT teams, the new rule requiring a minimum of 8 skills in a routine plagued NIU throughout the meet. With some simple adjustments to ensure fully composed routines, the Huskies will easily surpass their mark from this past weekend in their upcoming contests.
Like NIU, UIC struggled with some routine composition errors. In addition to their struggles having full routines, the Flames failed to put up a full high bar lineup. Nick Smiley led the charge for the Flames, as he has for the past three years and will continue to do this season. Their 301.10 team score is much lower than what is expected out of the Flames and will likely be the lowest score out of UIC this season. Struggles at their annual season opening home contest should be an eye opener for Charley Nelson and his team, and a similarly rough performance is unlikely at any point throughout this year.
SC United @ Cal
Closing out an action packed weekend was SC United taking on Cal this past Saturday night. The Golden Bears opened their season with a solid 382.10 and were paced by Noah Newfeld. The reigning CGA Freshman of the Year picked up right where he left off, taking first in the all-around with a 75.70. Yu-Chen Lee also had a terrific competition, taking first on both floor (13.85) and p bars (13.50).
SC United took a step back from where they were last year after struggles on high bar, tallying a team total of 310.90. The highlight for them was a first place finish from Eric Shebert on rings (12.90).
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.