Week 6 Recap
Michigan @ Ohio State
Ohio State 403.60 - Michigan 398.10
Ohio State pulled off one of the biggest upsets we might see all season by beating number two ranked Michigan, 403.60 to 398.10.
All-around efforts by Jesse Tyndall (81.05), Justin Ah Chow (79.35), and Kazuki Hayashi (78.65) helped the Buckeyes close out the competition with a season high. On top of their AA performance, Chow and Tyndall each walked away with an event title on floor and parallel bars. The Buckeyes also won event titles from Trevor Cummings (PH), Donovan Hewitt (SR), and Dexter Roettker (VT). Cummings’ 14.50 performance further cemented his status as the top horseman in the NCAA.
Ohio State’s consistency is arguably what won them this competition, counting only two falls. Although this was enough to help them walk away with the victory, they struggled to close out the competition strong on high bar with their highest score being a 13.00. This will be a much needed fix heading into the later half of the season as other teams began to improve upon their consistency and execution.
Michigan’s second place finish was an unfortunate result of their immense amount of falls. They had to count a miss on nearly a fourth of their routines, with floor and high bar leading the way in this category. Individually, multiple of the Wolverines’ standout routines came from Paul Juda. Juda was able to secure a 14.25 on pommel horse, 13.45 on parallel bars, and a 14.50 on high bar. His high bar score was one of the NCAA’s highest posted in the NCAA thus far. However, he struggled on rings, only posting a 12.10. More strong performances came from Javier Alfonso on rings (14.00) and Nick Guy on vault (14.70).
It is evident that Michigan has the talent to be a top contender in the NCAA, but their performance this past weekend was anything but that of a top team. Luckily, they still have plenty of time left in the season to refine their routines, work on their consistency, and hopefully get Cameron Bock back in lineups.
Oklahoma @ Illinois
Oklahoma 403.95 - Illinois 398.65
The ever consistent Sooners notched their fourth straight score above the 400 mark to take down Illinois on the road. Oklahoma did not have a single event total under 65 and scored an impressive 67.10 on high bar, where they are now ranked number one in the country. Raydel Gamboa carried the bulk of the workload, scoring an 82.00 in the all-around and placing first on rings with a 13.65.
Mark Williams continues to stagger his lineups, allowing for some of the top roster members to stay rested as the season goes on. Zach Nunez (two events), Vitaliy Guimaraes (three events), and Fuzzy Benas (five events), are all capable all-arounders who took on a lighter workload on Saturday. This makes Oklahoma’s 403.95 even more impressive and signals they are still far from their ceiling, which we will likely not see until the postseason. Fuzzy Benas took the final event title on the day for OU with his 14.25 on p bars.
Despite winning four of six event titles, Illinois fell short of the Sooners with their 398.65. P bars was the difference maker in this competition. Unlike OU who remained consistent on every event, the Illini struggled on p bars losing by over four points. Besides rotation number five, these teams were neck and neck.
Connor McCool won floor exercise with a 14.15 and Ian Skirkey took pommel horse with a 14.10. Both of them will be NCAA title contenders on their respective events come April. Evan Manivong’s 14.70 was good for the vault title and Hamish Carter went big on high bar, scoring a 14.15. Carter will have to take down Paul Juda to capture postseason titles here, but it is certainly possible.
All-Academy Championships
Navy 393.50 - Army 381.25 - Air Force 379.90
As expected, Navy (393.50) came out on top at the 2022 All-Academy Championships in Texas this past weekend. The battle was for second place in which Army (381.25) beat out Air Force (379.90) by under two points. Army Senior, Matt Davis, took home the all-around crown with an 80.10 to defeat Air Force’s Oliver Zavel (79.25) and Navy’s Isaiah Drake (77.70).
This meet came at a turning point for each of the teams at this point in the season. It was a test for Navy to show that their early season success was not due to early season luck or kind scores from judges getting used to the new code of points. Navy’s 393.50 is a solid score that solidifies their strength this season. They managed to accomplish this score even with some significant errors.
Some highlights for Navy were Syam Buradagunta’s winning floor routine (14.60), Dhiren Lutchman’s title claiming parallel bars set (14.00), and their top three sweeps on pommel horse and high bar where Navy was the only team to score above 13 on either of those events. Navy is far from their peak this year and those Big Ten teams who are scoring in the low 400s and high 390s might be caught off guard by this powerful Navy squad if they aren’t careful.
Army has had a slow start to the year but managed to show consistency in their away performances over the past three weeks. Having Mathew Davis back in the all-around is a good sign for the Black Knights as he has been their primary scoring threat over the past four years and was their highest scorer on every event but parallel bars over the weekend. Beating an Air Force squad that has had the last few weeks to refine routines instead of preparing for weekend competitions also bodes well for Doug Van Everen and his team. The next big test for Amy will come when they take on Air Force again, in just under a month.
Air Force showed that they just needed more time to get ready for this season. As we talked about early in the year, Air Force had all the difficulty necessary to be a contender but needed more time to refine their gymnastics. It is clear that over the past few weeks Josh Loeser has worked on increasing his team’s execution and consistency. This week’s score is over 14 points greater than their previous high, and an uncharacteristically disastrous high bar routine (7.60) shows that the Falcons have a lot left in the tank when it comes to scoring potential.
All in all, this contest showed a lot about what each of these teams are made up of and how the rest of the season could fare for all. The All-Academy Championships is a highly anticipated event by the service schools and one in which the victors maintain bragging rights for the next year.
Iceberg Invitational
Iowa 390.10 - Minnesota 363.70 - NIU 358.40 - KC United 245.30
The Iceberg Invitational was dominated by Iowa, behind the GymACT performance of the year from Evan Davis. Davis won every single event except pommel horse, where he finished second. His 83.30 all-around performance is the highest in the GymACT this year by almost four points. Winning the final title of the day for the Hawkeyes was Drew Helberg, who scored a 13.70 on pommel horse.
James Friedman was also key in Iowa’s 390.10 season high performance. Friedman placed second in the all-around with a 78.90 to go along with second place finishes on floor (13.80) and rings (13.70). Amari Sewell kept his streak of strong performances alive, competing on five events and averaging a 12.92.
Minnesota finished the competition in second behind yet another big day from Kellen Ryan. Ryan placed third in the all-around with a 77.70 and also finished in second on p bars (13.00). George Khoury made his all-around debut for the Gophers, providing good depth for this smaller roster.
Northern Illinois followed by KC United rounded out the field. David Dortmund continues to impress for NIU as he placed fourth in the all-around with a 75.20. Jerid Enyard had a great pommel horse routine (12.90), good enough for third on the event. KC United’s highlight came from Asa Thompson who placed sixth in the all-around (67.20).
The Big Flip Open
Stanford 415.35 - Cal 391.30
Full Results
In dominating fashion, Stanford once again topped their season high by posting a national-best team score of 415.35. Even more shocking is that the Cardinal broke the 415 mark with nine counted falls. Luckily, with Stanford finally displaying their full roster, including Olympian Brody Malone, and a vast amount of successful individual performances, they were able to make up for their many lost routines.
Before this past Sunday, Stanford’s weakest event was arguably floor. However, with a more seasoned lineup in play, they posted an NCAA high 71.75. Bryan Perla led the way with a huge stuck two-and-a-half twisting double back, earning himself the event title with his 14.70. On pommel horse, Brody Malone made his season debut by capturing the event title with a 14.00. Later in the competition Malone, the bronze World high bar medalist, also expectedly won the HB event title with a 14.30. On rings, Riley Loos muscled his way to a 14.60 with Ian Gunther close behind with a 14.45.
Curran Phillips once again won the vault title with a 14.65. Colt Walker and b followed Phillips on vault with their respective 14.60 and 14.55. Young also won the all-around for the second week in a row with an 82.75 and Walker finished in second with his 81.45. To close out on the sweep of event titles, Blake Sun broke the 15 mark on parallel bars for the third week in a row with his 15.15. Stanford’s impressive performance further molded the idea that they may be an unstoppable team for the rest of the season.
Finishing in second behind Stanford was Cal. The Golden Bears closed out the competition with a 391.30. Their biggest points of weakness in this competition was on rings (64.00) and high bar (59.45). However, they had multiple standout routines including that of Aidan Li who posted a 13.90 on pommel horse. This is the third highest score in Golden Bears pommel horse history under the new code. Will Lavanakul also posted an impressive 13.50 on pommel horse. As a team they were only one tenth behind Stanford on pommel horse. Strong performances also came from Caleb Rickard on vault (14.35) and Noah Newfield on parallel bars (13.95).
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.