2022 Conference Championships Recap: Michigan, Stanford, and Navy Run Away With the Titles
Big Ten Championships
Friday night came up all Michigan in University Park as the Wolverines were led by Paul Juda to easily take the Big Ten Tournament Title. Juda scored above a 14 on four of six events to capture the all-around title by almost three points with an 85.35. Michigan posted their highest team total of the year with a 413.35, beating the second place team by nine points.
Interim Head Coach Yuan Xiao’s team started the day off on floor, posting a solid 68.15. They then moved on to pommel horse, an event that has not been their best in 2022. They defied that notion, scoring a 67.05, the second highest team total on the event. Markus Shears led the way with a 14.35 and there was no looking back after that.
Wrapping up on high bar, Michigan hit every single routine en route to a gigantic 68.95, the highest in the competition. Paul Juda sealed the deal with a stuck dismount that scored him a 14.45, the highest mark in the competition by five tenths.
Nebraska finished as the second place team in the Big Ten and were led by Sam Phillips who captured sixth place in the all-around (78.30) and second on high bar (13.95). Unfortunately, the Cornhuskers' rings rotation could not come close to the Wolverines who beat them by over four points on the event. Other day one highlights for Nebraska came from Evan Kriley’s second place pommel horse routine (14.25) and Taylor Christopulos’ third place vault (14.60).
Rounding out the top three was Ohio State, led of course by Jesse Tyndall. Tyndall continued his fantastic 2022 campaign with a second place finish in the all-around (82.60) and two second place event finishes on both floor (14.10) and p bars (14.20). Donovan Hewitt led the way on rings with a 14.45 while Dexter Roetteker won vault with a 14.80.
Illinois and Penn State took fourth and fifth to round out the field at the 2022 Big Ten Championships. Illinois’ performance was a far cry from the 416.00 they finished their regular season with. Poor pommel horse and high bar rotations dug them a hole they could never quite get out of. Hamish Carter’s 79.40 all-around performance captured him fourth place. The Nittany Lions faced an uphill battle before the meet started and had a rough competition throughout, counting multiple falls on pommel horse and high bar.
Saturday’s event finals made for an even more exciting competition than day one. Starting out on the first three events, Jacob Moore was easily able to take the floor title with a 14.40 while Illinois rounded out the top three with Connor McCool (13.80) and Clay Mason Stephens (13.70). The pommel horse title looked like it was going to reigning NCAA Champion, Ian Skirkey, who crushed a 14.375 set. Penn State’s Chase Clingman quieted that narrative with a career routine, scoring a 14.425 to top the podium. His teammate, Nick Mock, scored a 14.075 to round out the top three.
The rings podium looked a bit different than what was expected heading into finals. Illinois’ Ashton Anaya posted a big 14.375 to take first place by three tenths. Javier Alfonso of Michigan took second while Ohio State’s Donovan Hewitt and Jesse Tyndall tied for third (14.05).
The drama of the night came on vault. Penn State’s Michael Jaroh stuck a kaz one-and-a-half which looked like it would take the title. The judges, however, flashed a zero. While the announcer had announced his name, the judges did not give him the okay to go. Jaroh was allowed to vault again but took a step and would finish third with a 14.50. Ohio State’s Kameron Nelson stuck his front handspring entry vault and very well deserved the title even if you take Jaroh’s first vault into account. Dexter Roettker of the Buckeyes joined his teammate on the podium in second place (14.625).
Penn State freshman, Josh Karnes, jumped out to an early lead on p bars with the best routine of his young career (14.30). Evgeny Siminiuc was able to beat him out by two tenths to take the title late in the rotation. Former Minnesota gymnast, David Pochinka, rounded out the top three (14.175) representing Illinois. Paul Juda owned high bar this weekend as he scored a 14.50 to take the event title by over five tenths. His teammate, Adam Wooten, took second (13.95) and Nebraska’s Dillan King took third (13.675).
ECAC Championships
Going into ECAC Championships it was clear that Navy would take the cake and run away with the title, which they did with an astounding 401.85. Based on championships scores from around the country, this puts Navy in real contention to make the super six at NCAAs. While this feat is remarkable, it was not the story of the night. That belongs to Springfield College.
Currently the only Division-III program in the country, the Pride led by Head Coach Matt Davis placed second at ECAC’s over Army 384.85 and William & Mary 385.2 with a 387.05, their highest ranking in the conference in ten years. Maybe the more impressive fact about this performance from Springfield is that this is the first time that Springfield has qualified to NCAAs as a team since 1977 when they were a DII program.
Prior to the competition, William & Mary and Springfield had national qualifying scores within half a tenth of each other, so the better team at ECACs would be the team that would go to NCAAs. As the competition kicked off, both teams were clearly focused on their NCAA prospects. When the meet was over the Springfield coaching staff didn’t even realize that they had placed second, they only knew that they had defeated the Tribe and were headed to NCAAs, the second place finish was icing on the cake.
While the team competition was exciting, no doubt, there were some impressive individual performances. Isaiah Drake, the star freshman from the Naval Academy took the all-around title with an 81.65 to overtake William & Mary’s Christian Marsh (78.75) and Army’s Mathew Davis (78.40).
Navy took home all but one individual event title. Starting on the floor, the Midshipmen swept the four top spots on the podium, led by Josh Williams’ 14.45. On pommel horse, Danny Clark steered the ship with a 13.65 to take the title over Springfield’s Colton O’Brien (13.10). On rings, Tribe senior, Christian Marsh put up an impressive routine, capped off by a stuck triple back dismount to score 14.45. Navy’s Connor Van Loo put up a 14.55 on vault to take the title over Springfield’s Andre Butler (14.35) and William & Mary’s Sam Lee (14.25).
Parallel bars was a tight battle between Midshipmen Danny Clark and Isaiah Drake. Drake’s 14.25 put him just ahead of Clark’s 14.2 to take his second title of the evening. As with floor, Navy owned the high bar, dominating the podium as Isaiah Drake collected his third honor of the competition with a 13.65 to beat out teammates, Cash Buske (13.55), Syam Buradagunta (13.4), and Caleb Hickey (13.35).
The story of this meet was clearly a combination of Navy’s dominance over the ECAC field and the historic performance from Springfield College. Naturally, a historic performance is going to be rewarded, and Springfield’s coaches were all awarded with ECAC Coach of the Year honors, while Pride senior, Timothy Templeton, was honored with the most improved gymnast award. Senior Gymnast of the Year belonged to Army standout Mathew Davis, a gymnast who will be greatly missed by Army Head Coach Doug Van Everen and his team. Rookie of the year naturally went to Navy’s Isaiah Drake, who looks to be a big part of the future of Head Coach Kip Simon’s program.
MPSF Championships
The number one ranked Stanford Cardinal put on a dominating performance at MPSFs and posted a season-high 424.25. Their stellar competition helped them break Oklahoma’s nine year MPSF Championship winning streak. Although the Sooners finished out in second place, they still posted an impressive 417.30, higher than that of any other team in the NCAA. Cal respectively finished in third with a 392.40 and Air Force in fourth with a 388.05.
Stanford displayed an endless amount of highlights this weekend, helping them win 5 of the individual event titles on top of their team victory. Brody Malone debuted in the all-around for his first time this season and came out on top with a big 85.95. Along with his AA title, he secured the high bar title with a 15.15. His high bar routine was arguably not only the best the NCAA has seen, but the world has seen in 2022.
Malone’s efforts were equally matched by Bryan Perla (FX), Khoi Young (PH), Ian Gunther (SR), and Colt Walker (PB) who also walked away with event titles. Freshman, Taylor Burkhart, made his first debut of the season for the Cardinal this weekend and posted an impressive 83.75 in the all-around. His much anticipated debut came just in time to shake up Stanford’s lineups before NCAAs. It can be believed that the freshman will be a big contributor in two weeks when he brings his flaring gymnastics style to the Championship floor.
Although Oklahoma is probably disappointed in their second place finish, there are a few big positive takeaways from their performance. First, they proved that they are capable of putting up a big score which puts pressure on the number three ranked Michigan Wolverines. Second, they were not perfect and had a few non-typical mistakes including a fall on vault. It can be guaranteed that coach Mark Williams will iron out any mistakes in the next two weeks and the Sooners will be ready to put on a peak performance at the Championship.
Benas led the way for OU with a strong 84.70 performance in the all-around and added an individual vault title to his resume. He was backed by his teammates Raydel Gamboa (83.10) and Vitaliy Guimaraes (83.10) who also had strong all-around performances. Zach Nunez also helped contribute a big score on pommel horse where he came in second with his 14.20.
Both Cal and Air Force did not put on their strongest performances of the season. The Golden Bears struggled on pommel horse which has been one of their strongest events of the season. However, they showed improvement on high bar posting a team score of 65.55. Senior Caleb Rickard posted a strong 14.50 on vault and 13.40 for Cal. Noah Newfield also put up a clean parallel bar routine landing a 13.60. For the Falcons, Garrett Braunton led the way in the AA with a 79.80. Jake Sampier led Air Force on floor with a 14.05 (eighth) and Oliver Zavel on high bar with a 13.60 (fifth).
Contributions from Bailey Perez, Max Soifer, and Ben Cooperman.