John Orozco picked up where he left off last October at the World Championships. Orozco is the Day 1 leader at Winter Cup, after a day of many lackluster performances, especially on pommel horse. He needed a 15.45 on his last event (vault) to tie 1st session leader Chris Brooks, and he ended up with a 15.60 to give him 89.35 for the day. Orozco posted top 5 scores on [...more]
The last weekend of competition before Winter Cup produced plenty of men's gymnastics action throughout the country. The weekend's biggest draw featured a tri-meet between top-ranked Oklahoma, 2nd-ranked Illinois and 7th-ranked Michigan. Before a big crowd in Champaign, the host team did not disappoint. The Sooners were up by almost 4 points heading into the last rotation, and that's where the Illini posted crushing 1-2-3 numbers on [...more]
The 2012 Men's Gymnastics season is officially underway, with a full slate of NCAA action and some prominent club invitationals. The college MAG action was actually a mixed bag, especially due to many gymnasts sitting out either to injury or because of the upcoming Winter Cup. Those who did compete, mostly did so on a few events. However, among the notables competing AA, Illinois freshman CJ Maestas turned in [...more]
Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy, in West Allis, WI, is one of the top men’s club programs in the country. Their optional program had five boys place in the Top 36 at JO Nationals this past May. One of these young men, Dmitri Belanovski, has been a perennial top all-arounder and Junior National Team member. If the last name sounds familiar, it’s because his father [...more]
Michigan sophomore Sam Mikulak and Oklahoma grad Chris Brooks were chosen to compete at next months Olympic Test Event in London. This is a great opportunity for both gymnasts to add to their resumes. Brooks is coming off his role as a World Team alternate. His stock is still rising. Mikulak, the defending NCAA all-around champion, is nearly fully recovered from [...more]
*** Update *** The early NCAA signing period is under way, and we'll update this list as soon as we learn of new developments. The '12-'13 class is impressive, and should be one of the better ones in recent years. [...more]
Team USA had a very successful trip to the Pan American Games in Guadalajara. After capturing the bronze medal in the team competition, the American men snagged four more medals in the event finals. Paul Ruggeri won half of those with his gold medal performance on high bar (15.65) and taking the silver on parallel bars (14.825). He won HB by almost a full point. Brandon Wynn added an [...more]
This is an update of our October 4 post that detailed some of the upcoming changes to the men's JO program: Following the 2012 Olympics, a new quad will be ushered in. Tweaks to the code of points are among the rumored changes. Much discussion is going on about the upcoming changes to the men’s JO program. It appears that the current compulsory program (levels 4-7) will remain roughly the same. The big changes will be made to the optional program. [...more]
Following the 2012 Olympics, a new quad will be ushered in. Tweaks to the code of points are among the rumored changes. Much discussion is going on about the upcoming changes to the men's JO program. It appears that the current compulsory program (levels 4-7) will remain roughly the same. The big changes will be made to the optional program. Please keep in mind [...more]
Morgan Hamm posted a nicely produced video in support of his brother, Paul, who recently got himself into a little drunken legal trouble the other evening. As a result of the incident, in which he was charged with assaulting a cab driver, refusing to pay a fare & damaging a cab, Hamm was discharged from his assistant coaching duties at Ohio State. The arrest video was very damning and embarrassing for the '04 Olympic champion, and undoubtedly led to [...more]
