NCAA Championship Recap
On Saturday evening, Stanford secured their third consecutive National Championship, 20 All-Americans, and five individual National Champions to close out one of the most dominating seasons in NCAA history.
The Cardinal led for the entire competition and it started on vault where they posted a huge 73.432. Khoi Young led the way with the hardest vault of the competition, a handspring 2 ½. Young led the whole competition with his 14.933 until the last vault of the day where Paul Juda stuck his kaz 2 ½ and won the event with a 15.000. Zach Martin also put up a big 14.900 for Stanford, finishing in third place. The Cardinal continued their momentum on parallel bars where they secured first and second place finishes from Curran Phillips and Colt Walker. Phillips’ massive 16.700 difficulty, clean execution, and world class front uprise work helped him post a well-deserved 15.233.
High bar was Stanford’s weakest event of the night where they scored a 67.366. However, the world medalist, Brody Malone, was able to capture his third consecutive NCAA high bar title with a 14.700. This was a much needed performance for Malone as he was working to climb out of a hole after a flustered parallel bar set which scored a 12.800. Other than parallel bars, Malone had an impressive night, earning All-American honors on four events, two event titles (pommel horse and highbar), and a second place all-around finish.
On floor, the super senior, Bryan Perla, captured the individual title with a 14.800 to close out his decorated NCAA career. Strong performances from Malone and Riley Loos also helped the Cardinal finish the exercise with a 72.433. Pommel horse was arguably even more successful than floor as they captured another four All-American honors. Malone led the way with his shared first place finish with Penn State’s Chase Clingman. He was joined by Khoi Young (fourth), Blake Sun (sixth) and Taylor Burkhart (seventh).
To wrap up the competition, Stanford went out with a bang, performing All-American status routines from all five gymnasts. Riley Loos led the Cardinal by capturing the rings title with his 14.600 and Mark Berlaga was close behind in second with a 14.533. Thomas Lee (fifth), Ian Gunther (sixth), and Malone (seventh) also contributed to the team’s monumental 71.666 still rings run.
Stanford made it evident this past weekend that they are one of the greatest NCAA teams of all time, and Head Coach Thom Glielmi perfectly stated what makes this team so unique:
“Every championship won is special but if I look at this team what really stands out is the culture they have developed in training. They push each other, support each other, and have high expectations for the team. All of them had a role to play in the team’s success. Most teams that win have a core group of athletes that take ownership and responsibility of the team’s success. For this team, every team member took on that role. From a coaches perspective that is very special”.
The Cardinal will be losing eight seniors, who have accumulated dozens of All-Americans over their careers, but an impressive lineup of underclassmen are ready to fill their shoes for years to come.
While Stanford continues to dominate, they are not the only story of excellence in NCAA gymnastics. Mark Williams has done a phenomenal job as the head coach at Oklahoma. He has taken team after team and put them in a position to mount the podium at the conclusion of the season. This year is particularly impressive as this is a young Sooner team. The freshmen class alone accounted for 11 of OU’s 30 routines and two freshmen earned All-American honors in the all-around.
Beyond these spectacular feats, the Sooners had a less than stellar qualifying session in which they put up one of their weakest postseason performances in years, and were forced to start on pommel horse in finals. Williams and his coaches prepared their team to be successful. The Sooners put the past behind them and took off running en route to a 414.55 to place second and claim 15 All-American honors.
William’s told SoonerSports.com how excited he was with his team’s performance:
“We had some young guys who had to figure out what we do and I was really pleased with how well and how quickly they adapted to that, and kept the tradition that we have. Since I won my first in 2002, we’ve been first or second 19 out of 21 years. Which when you think about that I can’t even believe that. And even tonight I have a hard time believing we did it again. I’m just thrilled for these guys to trust in what we do as a program and that my alumni even come back and help these guys get better.”
Pommel horse is always challenging to start on, but freshman phenom Raydel Gamboa showed what he is made of. He offered to lead off for his team and he got the ball rolling on the Sooners’ weakest event. Anchoring on pommel horse was Zach Nunez who put up a 13.833, which was good enough for third place and an All-American nod. Vitaliy Guimaraes, a Nissen-Emery finalist also brought home an All-American honors on pommel horse with a 13.700.
Rings was solid for Oklahoma, and their 67.898 on the event kept them in the running. In typical OU fashion, the Sooners had some big jumps on vault. Freshmen Fuzzy Benas and Emre Dodanli stepped up big with two stuck vaults earning them 14.733s each to tie for fourth on the event and claim more All-American honors for their team.
Consistency was the name of the game for the Sooners on parallel bars, a trait exemplified by this program. Raydel Gamboa led the way with a 14.066 for a seventh place finish and yet another All-American nod for the Sooners. Next was OU’s best event, high bar. The Sooners were team champions on the event during the regular season and in NCAA finals with a 69.85. Jack Freeman, Fuzzy Benas, Caesar Gracia, and Raydel Gamboa scored 14.266, 14.200, 14.033, 14.000 to place third, fifth, sixth, and seventh. The Sooners were electric on this event and ended up having almost their whole high bar line up on the podium earning them 4 more All-American awards.
The Sooners went to floor and continued to shine, where they scored a 71.231 to close out the night and squeak out the second place victory over Michigan while claiming three All-American spots on the event. Vitaliy Guimaraes, Emre Dodanli, and Spencer Goodell scored 14.600, 14.466, and 14.366 respectively to place top eight in the country. It was quite the battle between Oklahoma and Michigan at the end, coming down to the last guy for each team. The Sooners were able stay on their feet and minimize landing deductions keeping them just ahead of Michigan by .065.
This young Sooner team grew a lot throughout this season and will continue to do so. The second place victory will go a long way in pushing Oklahoma to improve and attempt to take on the behemoth that is Stanford in the coming season.
Michigan wrapped up the competition in third place, less than .1 behind the Oklahoma Sooners. While the Wolverines would have loved to walk out of the competition in second, they still brought home a load of hardware including 11 All-Americans, an individual event title, and the all-around title from Paul Juda.
Juda was the star of the show, winning the all-around with a 85.298 and the vault title (15.000). He additionally garnered All-American status on floor, rings, parallel bars and highbar. He was the first Wolverine to win the all-around title since Sam Mikulak in 2014.
As a team, Michigan started off with a strong parallel bars run where they scored a 69.932. This was the second highest team parallel bar score of the day. Leading this run was Evgeny Siminiuc who earned a third place finish, but things went downhill for the Wolverines on high bar as they had to count a 12.133. However, Juda and Adam Wooten stepped up to the plate to secure second (14.566) and seventh place (14.000) finishes.
Heading into the third rotation, Michigan was in a tight race for second place with the Sooners, but had Floor to gain an advantage. Jacob Moore was able to post a big 14.633 which helped him capture his highest NCAA floor finish in second place. As a team they were able to land a 70.299. On pommel horse, the Wolverine’s were consistent with all five of their scores ranging between a 13.033 and 13.330. Although these scores were good for the tough day of judging, they were lacking a big score on the event which resulted in a 65.998 event total. Going into the 5th rotation the Wolverines were able to remain steady with some strong Ring routines and stuck landings. Javier Alfonso and Paul Juda led Michigan on rings with a 14.366 and a 14.000 earning them a third and 8th place finish. The Wolverines closed out rings with a solid 68.731.
Heading into the last event, Vault, Michigan trailed OU by a few tenths. With Vault generally outscoring Floor by a couple points, the Wolverines had a great opportunity to wrap up the season in second. The run started off strong with David Wolma earning a 14.566 and an eighth place finish. Unfortunately, half way through the lineup Michigan had to count a fall. Juda did his best to close the deal by sticking a nearly perfect vault and winning the event with a huge 15.000, but they just fell short, ending the day with a 414.490 to OU’s 414.550.
Nebraska came in behind Michigan to finish fourth with a 406.435. Despite having some of their key players out with injuries, the Cornhuskers had two very strong days showing great consistency, having only 1 fall over the course of the competition. Beyond another year of team success, two Huskers were able to garner All-American honors. Donte McKinney finished seventh on vault with a 14.60 and Senior Captain, Dillan King, finished eighth on p bars with a 14.033.
The only disappointing outcome from this season for this team was their loss to Ohio State that lost them a share of the Big Ten Regular Season Title. Apart from that, 2022 was an extremely successful season for Nebraska. A second straight fourth place finish in the NCAA solidifies this program as one of the country’s premier.
The Buckeyes qualifying indicated that they were ready to show out with a big performance in finals, yet what was meant to be for the Buckeyes was a less than stellar performance resulting in a 399.326 for fifth place. If it wasn’t for Illinois’ train wreck of a pommel horse rotation, the Buckeyes would’ve easily fallen to sixth. The two teams at the bottom of the standings truly underperformed.
While the team result was not what Head Coach Rustam Sharipov had prepared his team for, Ohio State still had some highlights. A total of four All-American honors were collected by this group. Two of which were earned by senior superstar, Jesse Tyndall - the last of the Tyndall contingent in the NCAA. Tyndall put up a 14.333 on floor for eighth place and a 14.00 on high bar for seventh place. In addition, Trevor Cummings placed eighth on pommel horse with a 13.70 and Justin Ah Chow took the fifth spot on parallel bars with a 14.233.
A disastrous pommel horse rotation left Illinois out of this competition. Their 398.523, a far cry from their form at the end of the regular season, landed them a sixth place finish. Hamish Carter capped off a terrific season with an 82.166 fifth place All-American finish in the all-around. Ashton Anaya followed up his Big Ten Championships Title on rings with a 14.30 to finish fourth.
The six other teams that did not qualify to the second day were still well represented by individuals on Saturday. The most impressive of the group, Navy, beat out Penn State to finish seventh in the country. This is the highest ever finish in program history for the Midshipmen. The core is young and the future is bright for Kip Simon’s team.
A disappointing season for Penn State as a team was salvaged by the performances of Chase Clingman and Michael Jaroh. Clingman hit his top form at the perfect time, following up his Big Ten Pommel Horse Title with an NCAA Title. Michael Jaroh added a fifth place All-American finish in the all-around with an 81.432.
Garret Braunton capped off a fantastic 2022 season for himself representing Air Force with an even better finals performance. Braunton crushed a 14.266 high bar routine to finish third and also garnered All-American honors in the all-around with a seventh place 80.232. Representing Cal, Noah Newfeld followed up his 2021 CGA Rookie of the Year performance with an All-American finish in 2022. Newfeld posted a 78.798 in the all-around to finish eighth.
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.