Jonathan Horton can finally claim that elusive prize of U.S. Men’s Gymnastics National Champion.  The anchorman of our men’s program ran away with the title by a margin of 3.4 points over surprise runner-up Tim McNeill.  Running on sheer talent and adrenaline, Horton was easily able to absorb a fall on pommel horse, his last event, to put away the field.  Horton will now concentrate his efforts on gaining endurance as he clearly has established himself as the leader of Team USA heading into the World Championships.

Cal grad Tim McNeill put together two great nights of gymnastics to lock down second place.  McNeill not only exceeded his Day 1 performance, he also nailed his signature event, pommel horse (15.60).  His spot on the Senior National Team secured, he can also make travel plans for London.  McNeill had the evening’s highest scores on pommel horse and parallel bars (15.35), and was the picture of consistency.

The biggest surprise of the evening was ex-Illini Wes Haagensen, who had an awesome night with an 89.65 all-around score.  His lowest score of the night was a 14.45 on parallel bars.  Talk about consistency!  Cal’s Kyle Bunthuwong and Glen Ishino took fourth and sixth, respectively.  Seems like these two guys are always within a point of each other.  Miami wonderboy, Danell Leyva, definitely wowed the crowd with his fifth place finish.  Mr. Leyva has officially arrived and should also make travel plans for London.

David Sender, who started the evening in second place, had a very rough evening.  Starting out on vault, he tweaked his ankle and was unable to perform his second vault.  After that, it was all downhill.  A fall on parallel bars preceded another fall on high bar.  Floor and pommel horse were no better.  Finally, he put together a great rings routine to put an end to the madness and to his stellar career.  Sender ended up in tenth place and received a much-deserved ovation.  He will sorely be missed, and we wish him much success at vet school.

Universal Sports’ webcast was a welcome addition.  Although they missed some important coverage of various gymnasts, they did hit a home run by covering most of John Orozco’s routines and captured the emergence and importance of young Leyva.  Orozco dazzled tonight and impressively finished the all-around in eleventh place.  He should be a lead-pipe cinch to make the Senior National Team.  Still, it was disappointing not to see any coverage of major rising stars such as Oklahoma-bound Jake Dalton and Glen Ishino.  Dalton, after all, ended up winning a national championship on vault, beating out his future teammate, Legendre.  Good night, nurse, Oklahoma is going to be loaded next season.

Soon to come will be the much-awaited announcement of the make-up for our Senior National Team and our 2009 World Team.  It’s safe to assume that we’ll see some new blood on those squads!

Top 10 All-Around:

1. Jonathan Horton – 181.90
2. Tim McNeill – 178.50
3. Wes Haagensen – 178.00
4. Kyle Bunthuwong – 177.75
5. Danell Leyva – 177.60
6. Glen Ishino – 175.95
7. Steven Legendre – 175.85
8. Joey Hagerty – 175.75
9. Tim Gentry – 174.90
10. David Sender – 174.40

Congrats to our individual event national champions:

• FX – Steven Legendre (14.95 + 16.05) = 31.00
• PH – Luke Stannard (15.15 + 15.50) = 30.65
• SR – Jonathan Horton (15.80 + 15.80) = 31.60
• VT – Jake Dalton (16.25 + 16.45) = 32.70
• PB – Tim McNeill (15.15 + 15.35) = 30.50
• HB – Tie  Jonathan Horton (15.90 + 15.65)  Danell Leyva (15.85 + 15.70)

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