CGA All-Star Season 4: Recap
By Shannen Horan
LINCOLN, Neb. It was a World Class Showdown on Sunday, December 14, as the CGA hosted the fourth season of the All-Star Competition. It was a battle between the East, led by Michigan’s Fred Richard, and the West, led by Stanford’s Asher Hong. It was a back-and-forth competition, but Team East ultimately pulled out the 0.325 win over Team West. Here’s how it happened:
The competition started with a battle on floor, with both Trigg Dudley from Cal and Nathan Whitaker from Illinois sticking all four of their passes. It was a massive effort by both, but ultimately Dudley took the crown for the West with a 9.875. Whitaker took the silver with a 9.825 and Michigan’s Charlie Larson secured the bronze with a 9.700. Despite the two podium places for the East, the West had an early 0.15 lead after the first rotation.
Team East dominated the pommel horse, sweeping the top four spots. World Champion and Illinois junior Brandon Dang held off his teammates Preston Ngai and Alex Karadzhov with an event-winning 9.875. Dang is going to be one to watch this season as he hopes to claim the NCAA title on pommel. How he’s going to do it? Just doing the “same old: swinging some horse.”
With the East’s scores not dipping below a 9.750, they took a huge 0.60 lead going into the next rotation.
Team West made a comeback on rings, leading by 0.20 with Hong closing out against Richard. Hong “threw it down,” sticking his dismount to give him the win with a 9.900. Richard was behind him with a 9.775, and Stanford’s Nick Kuebler rounded out the podium with a 9.650. This strong rotation for the West gave them back a 0.325 lead.
It was back and forth on vault, with a huge final match-up between Hong and Illinois’ Garrett Schooley. They both stuck their triple fulls, but Schooley took the crown for the second year in a row with an impressive 9.825. His routine helped the East stay in it, only down 0.375 going into the final two events.
William and Mary senior Evan Wilkins led it off for the East on parallel bars with an outstanding 9.875 to take the championship title. The East continued the momentum, sweeping the podium with Army’s Conor Heary’s 9.800 and Richard’s 9.700 to give the East a sizeable 0.475 lead with only one rotation to go.
With only high bar left, the West needed to lock in to chip away at Team East’s lead, and that’s just what they did in the first two matchups. They closed the gap to just a couple of tenths before Illinois’ Sam Phillips put up a big 9.875 to give Team East a cushion. Despite Nebraska’s Max Odden putting up a competition-high 9.950, the East secured a 231.600 to 231.275 win over the West. Team East now moves to 3-1 overall in the All-Star Competition, and Richard was named All-Star MVP for competing four events for Team West.
The CGA would like to thank TURN for sponsoring the All-Star Competition and for all the apparatus sponsors who made season four possible!