CGA All-Star Meet: Season 3 Recap

The CGA, in partnership with Virtius, hosted the CGA All-Star Meet: Season 3. The West team took the All-Star title back from the East in a tight contest. The final score was 225.825 for the West to 225.550 for the East.

The competition started out as a close battle with the West beating out the East by two tenths on floor 37.1 to 37.3. The West’s strong performance on pommel horse put some distance between them and the East. Every member of team West scored above 9.5 while the East had a couple of challenges that hampered their efforts.

The first half of the competition was all about team West. On rings, the West extended their lead moving the team score at half way to 111.375 for Team East to 113.025 for Team West. 

Team East started their comeback campaign on vault. Team East had two athletes, Schooley and Ohio State’s Kameron Nelson who performed the only 10.0 valued vaults. With this vault performance the East clawed back some of the distance that the West had created. The score leading into the parallel bars rotation stood at 149.575 for the East to 151.00 for the West.

The East team knew a strong performance on parallel bars was critical if they wanted any shot at challenging the West for the All-Star meet title and they delivered. Clean and consistent routines across the board for team East closed the gap between the two teams. Moving into the final rotation, the West’s lead was cut to just .8.

The East had the advantage on highbar with both the reigning All-Star Champion, Sam Phillips and Reigning NCAA champion, Tate Costa, both from Illinois, on their roster. However, an 8 tenth lead is hard to make up even with a star studded lineup. 

With four athletes to go, two gymnasts from Nebraska for the West and two gymnasts from the East, an Illini and a Buckeye, the East had taken the lead by 3 tenths. Max Odden (Nebraska) for the West beat out the East’s Caden Spencer (Ohio State) by .325 to take the lead back. 

The score heading into the final two routines had the West leading by just .025 with Nebraska’s Tiderman and Illinois’ Tate Costa. Ultimately, it came down to the dismount. Costa had a great routine but took a big step on the dismount, while Tiderman stuck his dismount cold to cement the West’s victory and claim the MVP award.

Event winners of the night include:

Floor: Nathan Whitaker - Illinois/Team East (9.625) 

Pommel Horse: Igancio Yockers - Oklahoma/Team West (9.825)

Rings: Chris Heiser - Nebraska/Team West (9.8)

Vault: Garrett Schooly - Illinois/Team East (9.7)

Parallel Bars: Colt Walker - Stanford/Team West (9.65)

High Bar: Zac Tiderman - Nebraska/Team West (9.85)