Week 8 2026 CGA Power Rankings & Recap

By Peri Goodman, Isaac Erickson, and Peter Hristozov

There was a lot of exciting gymnastics being performed from all three conferences this past weekend. With the Winter Cup in the rearview,  we are one step closer to that highly anticipated championship season. The action in week eight included the nation’s highest team score, international and USA national competitors, and teams doing everything they can to move up in the NCAA standings and get those regular-season wins. Conference regular-season championship titles are up for grabs, and every time these teams are out on the floor, the pressure and the importance of hitting these routines continue to build.

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Week 8 meet recaps

Nebraska at Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Sooners had a three-week hiatus from competition to refine, upgrade, and perfect. With their performance on Saturday night, Mark Williams and his team made a statement that shook the rest of the NCAA, with a season record of 331.300. What was truly remarkable from this competition was the 13 sticks the Sooners recorded, including the four-for-four stuck double twisting double layouts to end the competition on high bar. The Sooners highest event total came on the high bar with a 56.100, highlighted by senior captain Kelton Christiansen’s 14.400 and Junior Brandon Zepeda-Orth’s 14.200. The Sooners started strong on the floor exercise, where junior Nico Hamilton scored a 14.150 after sticking his front layout double front pike combination pass, followed by a stuck double twisting double tuck. Sophomore Colby Aranda won yet another pommel horse title with a 14.450, while also stopping the bleeding after some early missed routines on the horse. The strength and execution demonstrated on the rings by Francisco Velez Belendez and Tas Hajdu were unmatched. In Sooner fashion, both athletes stuck their difficult double-twisting double-tuck dismounts, Belendez notching a 14.150 for the event title and Hajdu just behind with a 13.950. Sasha Bogonosiuk and Fuzzy Benas both had sticky feet at vault, both sticking their Kasamatsu 1.5 vaults for 14.450 and 14.400, respectively. Freshman Nathan Roman shined on the parallel bars with a light and effortless routine, including a beautiful peach half, a floaty Bhavsar, and a difficult double front dismount. Roman scored a 14.650, which is the new highest score in the nation on the parallel bars. Chuck Chmelka and the Huskers had their own team season high with a 321.150, but some errors prevented them from getting the win over the Sooners. The Huskers had an outstanding vault rotation, even besting the Sooners with a 56.600. Nathan York and Ty Roderiques tied for third with a pair of 14.200’s on their clean and dynamic Kasamatsu 1.5’s. York also had a great parallel bar performance with a stuck double front half dismount, notching an impressive 14.100 for second place. Sophomore Caden Clinton had a clutch outstanding performance on the pommel horse after some early mistakes in the lineup. His unique flairs and beautiful dismount earned him a gigantic 14.250 on the event. Senior Asher Cohen used his experience for a beautiful parallel bar performance for a 13.900 and demonstrated a textbook Azarian Maltese mount and inverted cross for a 13.600. 

Stanford International Collegiate

The Stanford International Collegiate Competition is one of the more unique NCAA competitions we see throughout the season. The competition consisted of Team Stanford, Team USA, Team Mexico, the Allstars, and Cal Berkeley. Head Coach Thom Glielmi and the Cardinal finished the competition with a 323.900 with a win over Cal. The Stanford Cardinal began their competition on the vault with a 56.150, highlighted by Cooper Kim’s 14.350, with his clean Kasamatsu 1.5. Cooper Kim also won the floor exercise title with a 14.000, with a sharp and clean performance. The Cardinal then moved to parallel bars, where Arun Chhetri displayed a unique routine with his Belle release and front uprise straight into Honma. Chhetri won the event title with an impressive 14.450. Nick Kuebler continues to show his consistency on the high bar, still rings, and the floor exercise. A stuck double twisting double layout off the highbar electrified the crowd and secured Kuebler the high bar event title with a 14.200. Difficult strength elements and clean landings also gave Kueblar the rings event title and second place on the floor exercise with a pair of 13.950’s. Sophomore Kiran Mandava comfortably won the pommel horse event title with a 14.350 showing his unique and difficult traveling skills. Bryan Del Castillo and the Cal Bears recorded their second-highest team score of the season with a 312.850. The Cal Bears started on the pommel horse with two solid performances from Harry Kim and Davide Comparin. Comparin’s routine included a difficult full kip element and a beautiful dismount, while Kim showed difficult one-pommel work with beautiful extension. Both gymnasts scored a 13.300 and placed second on the pommel horse. The vault was Cal’s highest individual event score, and it was highlighted by a difficult Kasamatsu double full from Jasper Smith-Gordon for a 14.150 and third place. Brendan Storm had a great performance on the parallel bars with a 13.900. His routine included a beautiful front straddle ⅓ and Suarez release. Lastly, Tucker Yasunaga placed fourth on the high bar with a 13.550, where he performed a huge Kolman and straddle Tkatchev release. Yasunaga tied his teammate Matteo Bardana’s score earlier in the season for the Cal high bar program record. 

Rocky Mountain Mavericks at Air Force

The GymACT Rocky Mountain Mavericks met the Air Force Falcons for a dual meet in Colorado Springs Saturday night. The Falcons recorded their second-best team score of the season with a 307.050. The Falcons started on the floor exercise, which was won by freshman Isaac Koo. Koo opened up with a huge double front and then moved to a difficult front 2.5. He finished the routine with a clean back double pike for a 13.450. Senior captain Sam Brown put down another clean and difficult pommel horse routine for a huge 14.650. Brown’s routine consisted of a difficult Bezugo element, intricate one pommel work, and smooth travel elements. Rings were won by the Falcon’s lead-off, Ryan Jacobson, who scored a 12.500 and demonstrated a unique and difficult Honma cross strength element to a cross pull to support. Jared Fry and Jack Foltyn both put down clean Kasamatsu full vaults for a pair of 13.350’s. Foltyn also tied for the win on the parallel bars with a 13.350 on his routine that featured complex underbar elements and a clean double pike dismount. Senior Palmer Wright shared the win with Foltyn on the parallel bars. His routine featured a beautiful Honma mount, a nicely executed peach half, and a stuck double tuck dismount. Wright’s stuck dismount brought the energy for the Falcons going on to highbar. Highbar was a bit of a struggle for the Falcons, but Senior Tai Gopaul ended the meet off with a 13.200. His routine featured a unique Yamawaki-to-Gienger release combo and a triple back dismount.  

Army, William & Mary @ Ohio State

Ohio State continued to show their strong home scoring upside this weekend, hosting two ECAC teams for Senior Day. The Buckeyes breezed through their first three events, and runaway event wins from Chase Davenport-Mills’ floaty and calm 14.000 floor set, then Parker Thackston’s dominant 15.300 on pommel horse. For good measure, Ohio State was able to sweep the top three on pommels, with Conlan Simpkins’ 14.150 and Kristian Grahovski’s 13.700. They swept rings shortly after, spearheaded by Jesse Pakele’s career high 13.650. Vault saw victory from Army’s Nick Lester, earning a 14.100 for his stuck Kasamatsu full. Also of note, William and Mary had all four of its vaulters in the goldilocks zone – ranking between fifth and ninth, but most importantly being the only team to avoid any vaults below the 13 benchmark. Pakele secured his second title of the day at parallel bars with a 13.600, closely followed by teammates Tyler Burgess (13.500) and David Ramirez (13.400). This time Army was the team comfortable in the middle, with each routine notching between a 12.500 and 13. Jacob Harmon took the win on high bar with a 13.850, though not without serious heat applied to the event’s four Buckeyes. His array of inbar elements all finished in a precise vertical, capped off by a high flying layout Tkatchev and stuck double double layout dismount. Separating William and Mary as the top high bar team of the day from Ohio State, who led every event except high bar, was 0.350. Luke Tully was responsible for disrupting a would-be Buckeye event team score sweep, putting up a 13.500 and taking a share of second place individually, en route to an all around title as the lone competitor in the field. 

Springfield @ Penn State

The Pride of Springfield made the trip down to Happy Valley on Saturday afternoon as they faced off against #6 ranked Penn State. The Nittany Lions started off hot on the floor exercise taking the top four spots led by a Matthew Underhill’s 13.600. Akseli Karsikas was slated to compete in the All Around, but unfortunately injured his ankle during his floor routine and had to pull out of the competition. The Pride came back swinging on the pommel horse taking the top two spots with Peyton Cramer scoring a 14.100 and Devon Felsentein scoring a 14.350. Bobbie Alessio and Ritam Malik scored season highs on the pommels posting a 13.250 and a 14.050 respectively, allowing PSU to over take the event by 0.750. Moving to the still rings, Penn State had a comfortable lead over Springfield on an event that they are historically great at. Their depth was tested as the Nittany Lions were without Akseli and super star Luke Esparo, who unfortunately will miss the remaining of the season with a knee injury. Thankfully their captain Landon Simpson (12.550) and freshman Shaun Smith (12.700) were able to step in an provide quality routines for their team. Blaise Rousseau was the top ring scorer for the Pride as he scored a 13.550 after finishing his routine with a gorgeous tucked double double. Kellen Ryan also achieved a season high on the rings scoring a 12.900. Just like on the floor exercise, Penn State took the top four spots on the vault. All of Penn State’s vaulters landed their Kasamatsu 1.5’s which resulted in a season high of a 56.000. Springfield’s Owen Carney led their team with a 13.600 as he returned to the Pride’s line up after suffering a knee injury in their season opener at Navy. The Pride kept it clean and simple on the parallel bars which proved to be the right strategy as they won the event over Penn State by 0.500. Springfield’s Blaise Rousseau and Penn State’s Landon Simpson tied for the event tittle both scoring a 13.100, making a season high for Blaise. The biggest separator in this meet was the highbar. Kacper Garnczarek hit a beautiful highbar routine, sticking his straight half-in-half-out, improving on his previous season best by over 0.500 and winning the event with a 13.600. Owen Carney also showed why he is a two time NCAA highbar finalist. Back on highbar since his scary peel in their season opener, Owen nailed his Adler 1/2 right to handstand and caught both of his Tkatchev’s beautifully leading the Pride with a 13.050. The meet concluded with a victory for the Nittany Lions who scored a 316.700 over Springfield’s 308.200. PSU alumni and two time Olympic medalist Stephen Nedoroscik was in attendance to sign autographs and hand out the Gene Wettstone award to the most outstanding gymnast at the meet. In honor of Gene and Stephen the award was given to the winner of the pommel horse which in this case was Springfield’s Devon Felsentein, marking one of only a few instances where this award was won by someone other than a Penn State gymnast.

Greenville, Navy @ Illinois

Illinois welcomed two ECAC teams this past weekend for a three-team meet. The Fighting Illini took the win by a large margin, proving why they are ranked 7th in the CGA rankings. The lead by the Illinois men’s team being 9 points, however the two ECAC visiting teams went neck to neck, and the 2nd place spot was a nail biter, ultimately leading Greenville to the second place spot and the Midshipmen in third. Event highlights start on floor, with a shared podium by each program. The event winner, Garret Schooley, won the event title with a massive 14.300 which featured a beautifully positioned double layout, a triple full side pass, and a stuck back double pike dismount. In second, Midshipman Bajamin Thurlow Lam finished just two tenths behind the title score, his routine scoring a 14.100 with stuck entry passes and a minor hop on his dismount. Pommel horse featured a brawl, but Illinois national team member Brandon Dang put down a world class 14.650, tying his season high and winning the event by over a point. Navy athletes share the second and third spot on the podium. Rings had large margins between the teams, and Navy took a beating on the rotation scoring 3 points under Greenville and 6 points behind Illinois. Illinois athletes shared the podium – Preston Gnai, 13.750, Sam Phillips 13.400, Hasan Aydogdu 13.150. Navy’s highest athlete placed 7th place, and the other three taking the last three spots on the event. On vault the Panthers dominated the competition, which is a testament of ambition given their short time as a program compared to this week's competitors. While their team took the highest score overall, Illinois made their mark with athlete Preston Gnai coming off a rings rotation and moving to vault to win the event title with a stuck vault to score a 14.350. Parallel bars was highlighted by GU standout Jaxon Clapper who won the event title with a score of 13.700 just beating out Illinois veteran Connor Micklos by 0.1. On highbar the Navy midshipmen dominated the rotation and took the three top spots. Matthew Petros won yet another high bar title of the season, this weekend scoring a 13.750.

week 8 conference outlook

Big Ten

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After surpassing 320 this past weekend, Nebraska has made it clear they want fans to see them as the favorite as the five Big Ten teams inch closer towards the conference’s championship. Their key to leading the group has perhaps come from their depth across the six events, with lineup tested routines going at least seven strong on all except high bar. The Huskers’ one two punch of Max Odden and Alex Nitache, capable of formidable all around programs, are allowed valuable rest thanks to serious four event contributors like Nathan York and Sam Rakita. Complemented by Caden Clinton and Asher Cohen being near-unstoppable on their two pet events, Nebraska is able to throw down hits without depleting its bench. Ohio State crept past Michigan by average this week following their home tri-meet, also earning a 320+ of their own in the process. Contrasting Nebraska, the Buckeyes’ edge comes from having 14+ potential on every event. Defending CGA Specialist of the Week Parker Thackston has found his footing with a career high 15.300 on pommels, while Chase Davenport-Mills serves as his team’s north star on the leg events. Four have competed all around this year for the Scarlet and Gray, further cementing there is no proven formula for team success in the Big Ten. Michigan and Penn State are not far behind, with similar campaigns to each other thus far. They’ve each settled into a groove on floor, pommels, rings, and vault led by seasoned upperclassmen, then have an Achilles heel in parallel bars and high bar respectively; guaranteeing a major test at the end of any dual meet. The true kicker for the Wolverines and Nittany Lions? They each have an individual leading their respective low scoring events by average: Fred Richard (PB), and Akseli Karsikas (HB).  Capping off the conference with a high-risk, high-reward track record is Illinois, which on a good day can put real pressure on any of the above listed teams. Their strength as a team this year comes from dynamic leg events in Garrett Schooley and Nathan Whitaker, backed up by consistent (if not also gritty) hits from Brandon Dang (PH) and Sam Kaplan (PB). As the Fighting Illini encroach closer on mathematically locking in post-season seeding, they’ll look to figure out how they can hit 24 routines on the same day. 

MPSF

This was an action-packed weekend for the MPSF Conference, with all four teams competing. The biggest story would have to be Oklahoma putting up the highest team score in the NCAA against Nebraska. The Sooner’s 331.300 will be the new benchmark that the rest of the field will be looking to catch as we move closer to Championship Season. The Sooners also swept all three MPSF Conference weekly awards. Senior Brigham Frentheway won MPSF Gymnast of the Week. Freshman Sasha Bogonosiuk continues to impress with clutch performances, taking the MPSF freshman of the Week. Lastly, freshman Nathan Roman took MPSF Specialist of the Week, with his 14.650 on the parallel bars. When asked his team’s biggest strength, Head Coach Mark Williams stated, “I think the greatest strengths that we have as a team include having some depth, where we were able to modify our lineup throughout the season and hopefully come to the end of the year with a good understanding of what our best team will be, and the fact that we've been generally very consistent, hitting 90% for most of the season up to this point, and having a few large errors or falls throughout our competitions.” The depth of the Stanford Cardinal is also impressive, with Thom Glielmi’s ability to compete with two teams of Stanford gymnasts at the Stanford International Collegiate. Athletes such as Asher Hong and David Shamah’s scores did not count toward the NCAA rankings because they competed for Team Stanford USA, but their strong all-around performances will be useful for the Cardinal as the season progresses and they look to compete with the other top teams, including Oklahoma. Hong scored an 81.400 all around, while Shamah scored a 78.250. Nick Kuebler continues to be crucial for his team with reliable performances and big scores on the floor exercise, still rings, and high bar. Thom Glielmi mentioned Kueblar and Cooper Kim as members of his team who stood out to him in last weekend's competition. Glielmi believes his team has high start value routines that need a little more polishing, and “with a little more time, they will be polished and fun to watch.” Cal continues to put down solid performances on all six events. Tucker Yasunaga tied the California Berkley school record on highbar with his 13.550. Moments like this are helping build momentum for the Cal Bears heading into their home Conference Championships. The Bears will be looking to feed off of that home crowd come April 4th for the MPSF Championships. Air Force is continuing to improve with their consistency, with athletes such as Sam Brown, Tai Gopaul, and Jared Fry stepping it up for the Falcons, with strong performances coming week after week. Isaac Koo has also been an incredibly reliable freshman who has been in multiple lineups in every competition so far. When asked about his thoughts on the Falcon’s most recent competition, Air Force assistant coach Sergey Resnick stated, “The team has been spending extra time on details and minimizing landing deductions over the past couple of weeks, and we saw a lot of those details in the competition against the Mavericks. We still have issues to address on highbar, losing over 4 points in mistakes on that event cost us, but the work they put in showed on the other events”. Resnick also discussed his team's goals heading into the postseason, which include moving up in the rankings and “consistently posting scores in the 310+ range.”

ECAC

The ECAC continues to be one of the closes conferences in the NCAA. Every weekend a new team has the potential to claim the top spot in conference. This past weekend was highlighted by a great tri-meet where Navy and Greenville battled hard in Illinois. Junior Jaxon Clapper from Greenville won this weeks gymnast of the week award for his impressive parallel bar, floor exercise and vaulting performance. Jaxon won the parallel bar title with a 13.700, the fourth win in the event this season. Kyler Hinson also competed in the All Around this week, scoring a 76.150 and marking the second time this season he has competed every event. Navy’s Brian Solomon continues to lead the ECAC in the All Around with an average of a 76.817, but rested some events this week after competing All Around at the 2026 Winter Cup last week. Four missed routines on the rings from Navy proved too much to over come as they posted a season low of 47.550. After eight weeks the midshipmen still lead the ECAC on floor led by Colby Prince and Benjamin Thurlow Lam. Pommel horse has been the most exciting event to follow as both Springfield and Army have been dominate this season. Army is the number one team in the conference on horse behind stellar performances from senior Maddox Pabellon. Springfield’s standout sophomore Devon Felsenstein leads the event however scoring a 14.300 or higher twice within the last three weeks. His performance this week at Penn State earned him ECAC routine of the week. Blaise Rousseau is the other Springfield gymnast atop the leader board, this time on the still rings. Brian Rollison from Simpson remains in the second position despite being extremely consistent for the Storm. Greenville’s Sergey Popov and Ricky Mays remain in the conversation for the conference strong man, as they have helped Grenville stay second in the rankings. Where Greenville has been the most dominate has been vault and parallel bars, where they lead the conference. Logan Watterson has scored a 14.000 or better in all three of his vaults this year, demonstrating excellence and consistency for the Panthers. Army’s Nick Lester is right on his tail ranking second in the conference after 8 weeks of competition. Three out of the five top parallel bar finishers are from Greenville, Jaxon Clapper, Kyler Hinson, and Sergey Popov. The other two are Army’s Noah Duran and William & Mary’s Brayden Bates. Finally, William & Mary takes the top spot on the highbar led by Luke Tully who is yet to score below a 13.100 this season. Navy’s Matthew Petros scored the conference high this past weekend at Illinois posting a huge 13.750. The #1 & #2 highbar schools will face off this weekend. This Saturday, Army WestPoint will be hosting a tri-meet with Springfield and Greenville. Greenville will be splitting their team this week as they plan to also attend Simpson vs Nebraska. This should be a great opportunity for the Panthers to test their depth and give some guys on their big roster the opportunity to compete. Also on Saturday, Navy will be traveling down to William & Mary to face off in an in conference duel meet. Every team in the ECAC will be competing this weekend, all with in conference opponents. This will be the biggest week of the season leading up to USAG Collegiate Nationals in two weeks and ECAC Championships which is only one month away!

Week nine is shaping up to be a great one! Oklahoma’s senior night will be one to watch for next weekend, as the Cal Bears will be visiting the Sooners in Norman. There are multiple Big Ten dual matchups this weekend as Penn State will be at Michigan and Ohio State at Illinois. The ECAC will also have a packed schedule with Springfield College at Army and Navy at William and Mary. Lastly, Greenville and Nebraska will be traveling to Simpson for another regular-season competition. Make sure to check the schedule so you don’t miss any of the action!

Week 9 Schedule (all times EST)

Friday, March 6

1:00 pm- Penn State @ Michigan

Saturday, March 7

1:00 pm- Ohio State @ Illinois

1:00 pm- Springfield College @ Army

2:00 pm- Navy @ William and Mary

4:00 pm- Greenville, Nebraska @ Simpson

7:00 pm- California @ Oklahoma