Week 7 Recap
Nebraska (403.30) @ Oklahoma (414.20)
Oklahoma put on an impressively solid performance this past weekend, posting a 414.20 over Nebraska’s 403.30. The competition started out tight for the two teams, but after a lack of execution on routines and landings for Nebraska, they quickly slipped out of reach of the dominant Sooners. At the end of the day, consistency was the name of the game for OU which ultimately helped them land the second highest score in the NCAA behind Stanford’s 415.35.
The Sooners started off the competition strong on the floor exercise with Vitaliy Guimaraes, Jack Freeman, and Emre Dodanli all breaking the 14.00 mark helping the team score a 69.70. Zach Nunez helped carry this momentum to pommel horse for OU where he scored a 14.20. Nunez also led the Sooners in the all-around where he closed out the evening with a 82.85.
On rings, freshman superstar, Fuzzy Benas, and senior Spencer Goodell tied for the event title with a 13.95. Benas carried his style into vault winning his second title of the night with a 14.75 and his teammate Josh Corona was close behind with a 14.70. The Sooners posted a big 72.40 as a team on the event. With only two events left, Oklahoma made sure to put the nail in the coffin on parallel bars (68.80) and high bar (68.10). Benas secured his third event title on parallel bars with a 14.10 and Spencer Goodell placed second with a 13.80. Raydel Gamboa (14.15) and Cesar Garcia (13.95) helped lead the Sooners to finish out the night with the NCAA’s highest team high bar score of the season.
Nebraska started off the night strong with Jake Bonnay securing the floor event title with a 14.25. Heading into pommel horse, the Huskers were a few points behind OU, but were able to close the gap with a big horse run. Evan Kriley won the event title with a massive 14.50 and Khalil Jackson set his season high with a 14.10. These two scores helped contribute to the Huskers 67.45 performance on the event.
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill for Nebraska after the second rotation. On rings, they only posted a 63.85 after several routines didn’t break the 13.00 mark. On vault, they had a near perfect run with Sam Phillips (14.70), Donte McKinney (14.65), Taylor Christopulos (14.65), and Charlie Giles (14.50). However, they had to count a 13.100 which drastically hurt their team score. Parallel bars (66.85) and high bar (66.45) were consistent for the Huskers but a lack of execution on their landings really hurt their scores from being able to go from good to great.
Air Force (376.90) @ Cal (401.15)
Cal came out of the gate swinging to take down Air Force 401.15 to 376.90. This is the first time this year that Cal has broken the 400 barrier. Yu-Chen Lee also took home the all-around crown over Erich Upton, scoring an 80.60. This solid showing puts Cal in the conversation for Super Six contention at NCAAs. The progress that Air Force showed last weekend proved to be more of a ceiling and less of a rung on their ladder toward the elite group of NCAA teams.
Cal’s floor lineup continues to show off a high degree of execution to maximize their scoring potential even without a high level of difficulty. Pommel horse, however, is a different story for Cal where higher start values seem to be the ingredient to their success. Aiden Li continues to impress this season on horse, scoring a 14.00 this weekend.
Solid team scores on rings 66.30 and vault 69.60 kept Cal’s scoring potential high but didn’t stand out as their stronger events in the same way that their pommel horse work does. Parallel bars does. A team score of 68.75 is a very strong parallel bars team score highlighted by Noah Newfeld’s 14.35. High Bar (64.40) for Cal was also solid and enabled the team to push past the 400 mark.
Air Force didn’t have their best day, however, there were some solid performances sprinkled in. Floor was highlighted by Jake Sampier’s 13.45 to lead the Falcons to a team score of 62.55. Pommel horse continues to improve for Josh Loeser’s team. Jacob Becchetti pulled off a 13.05 to pave the way. Rings was the real downfall for Air Force over the weekend. One rough routine that scored a 9.20 led to a team score of 59.00. Vault (69.75) was much better, highlighted by Bryan Woffinden’s 14.35. Parallel bars (63.50) and high bar (59.80) for the Falcons were less than stellar but got the job done. They’ll need to make some significant improvements if they want to remain in contention to qualify for NCAA’s as a team this season.
While this contest was not what Air Force was looking for, Cal pulled off a massive performance to show their true strength. If Cal can remain at this level moving forward, they will be a force to be reckoned with as this season wraps up and into postseason.
Army (374.85) and William & Mary (364.55) @ Ohio State (393.95)
Posting a 393.95 this past Saturday, the host team took down both Army and William & Mary in Columbus. Ohio State dominated, taking five of six event titles en route to an almost twenty point win. While it was a solid day, the Buckeyes took a step back from their impressive win over Michigan just a week ago, where they posted a season high 403.60.
Ohio State counted two scores below the eleven mark, explaining the gap between their performance Saturday and that of a week ago. When they hit, this team is clearly capable of going 400 plus with relative ease. Jesse Tyndall took a bit of a rest this week, competing on only three events. He made them count, however, winning both rings (14.10) and high bar (13.75). Justin Ah Chow took on the bulk of the workload, competing on four events and capturing the title on parallel bars with a 13.80. Rounding out the event winners for Ohio State were Luke Smigliani on pommel horse (13.15) and Donovan Hewitt on vault (14.80).
Taking second were the Black Knights behind yet another great performance from Mathew Davis. Davis was able to capture the all-around title with a 78.15 to go along with a first place finish on floor (13.75). Joseph Buselmeier had a solid showing, competing on three events and tying for third on rings with Davis (13.50). Pommel horse was the achilles heel for Army where they scored a 56.15. They have been good here this season when they have stayed on behind a breakout year from Gabe Almeida and should be back near season highs once they gain their consistency back.
Rounding out the group was William & Mary, posting their third score of the season above the 360 mark. Aidan Cuy was the key contributor once again, tallying a 72.10 second place finish in the all-around. Sam Lee had a terrific day, competing on four events and placing fifth on p bars (12.80) and fourth on high bar (12.50).
Navy (385.30) @ Springfield (381.90)
Navy nearly suffered an upset while resting some of their stronger athletes when they took on Springfield College over the weekend. Navy’s 385.30 pushed them ahead of the Pride’s 381.90 in the last rotation. Both teams put up some less experienced athletes and Springfield showed that they deserve to be favored over Air Force for qualification to the NCAA championships as a team.
Floor proved to be a strength for Springfield, who got off to a large early lead with a 66.35 team score on the event, highlighted by Jakarie Williams’ 13.55. Navy struggled early, with their highest score of 13.05 from Erik Engleke. Both teams had solid showings on pommel horse with Springfield putting up a 63.20 and Navy with a 64.05 to make up the gap from the first event. Dan Clark’s 14.15 easily took the title. Both teams put up solid but not groundbreaking scores on rings with a 63.70 from the Pride and a 63.05 from the Midshipmen.
Vault produced some higher scores for both teams. Dominic Ramalho led the way with a 14.25 over Navy’s Josh Williams’ (14.10). Struggles from both teams on parallel bars opened the door. Navy’s Dihren Lutchman took full advantage by putting up a 13.55 to win the title by .65. Springfield was still ahead going into high bar, but a 9.20 in the lineup made it easy for navy to sail to victory to take home the day’s title by 3.6 points.
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.