Brooks had a great meet, especially after dropping out of the recent Olympic Test Event in London.  He compiled the top scores on PB (16.00) and HB (15.40), while also posting 5th place numbers on FX (14.45) and SR (14.70).  Brooks appears to be healthy and raring to go for an Olympic Team berth.  Danell Leyva got off to a rough start on PH (11.55), but settled down to tie Brooks on PB (16.00) and earning the 2nd highest scores on FX (14.80) and HB (15.35).  Overall, Leyva fell three times and still finished in 3rd place (87.65).  He is definitely showing improvement on FX and SR, making him (and Orozco) a lock for the Olympic Team.

Paul Hamm competed in his first meet since 2008, and showed glimpses of his former self, but failed to qualify for Saturday’s finals.  He hinted in an interview with Gymnastike that he could compete again as early as next month’s Houston National.  Hamm was obviously frustrated with his performance, but was encouraged by the fact that he’s back in the game.

Taking a year off from vet school seems to be paying off for David Sender.  The sentimental crowd favorite put in a great day’s work and finished a very respectable 6th place (86.35).  Sender tallied the day’s top score on VT (16.25) and the 2nd best on SR (14.95).  He is now emerging as a credible threat to take one of the coveted 5 spots on the Olympic Team.

Another Stanford alum on the comeback trail also did well.  Sho Nakamori put up top 10 scores on 3 events (FX-8th-14.35, SR-9th-14.40, HB-9th-14.25).  His AA score of 86.05 was good enough for 8th place.

Other top scores for the day were Steven Legendre on FX (15.90) and CJ Maestas on SR (15.45).  10 club gymnasts ended up qualifying for Saturday’s finals (# of points scored in 20 point system).

• Jake Martin – (27)
• Chandler Eggleston (25)
• Yul Moldauer (19)
• Max Mayr (17)
• Marvin Kimble (17)
• Hunter Justus (15)
• Timmy Wang (11)
• Akash Modi (10)
• Jake Dastrup (9)

Top 10 event finishers for the clubbers were Chandler Eggleston (VT-2nd), Yul Moldauer (PH-8th), Max Mayr (PB-9th), Hunter Justus (VT-9th), Timmy Wang (PH-10th).

Top 10 Qualifiers based on 20 point system – 42 athletes qualify for finals:

1. Chris Brooks (85… 89.20)
2. John Orozco (81… 89.35)
3. Danell Leyva (72… 87.65)
4. Brandon Wynn (58… 87.00)
5. Sho Nakamori (54… 86.05)
6. Jesse Silverstein (54… 85.20)
7. Paul Ruggeri (53… 86.20)
8. Alex Buscaglia (52… 82.00)
9. CJ Maestas (51… 85.40)
10. Steven Legendre (50… 86.50)

Complete stats can be found here.

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Other notable scores for the Illini were tallied by Yoshi Mori (FX-15.00), freshman Mike Wilner (SR-15.20) and Phillips (PB-14.80).  Once again, World Team member Jake Dalton led the Sooners’ attack with his meet-high scores of 15.90 on FX, 15.30 on SR and 15.30 on PB.  He was the only all-arounder of the meet and put up an 88.40.  Another standout for the Sooners was Raymond White, who contributed a 15.20 on FX and 14.90 on VT.  Michigan was led by Sam Mikulak’s winning score on PH (15.00) and the freshman combo of Stacey Ervin (FX-14.70, VT-14.70, PB-14.60) and Adrian de los Angeles (FX-14.70, PB-14.70).

Special mention:  Paul Ruggeri’s two event titles enabled him to surpass Coach Justin Spring on the Illini’s all-time career list with 60 event titles.  No doubt he has plenty more to win!  In the above link, Coach Spring mentioned that Ruggeri’s routine was “watered down.”  Ruggeri later confirmed that with this tweet… “@RuggeriIII: @StickItMedia haha I was gassed and did endo full to mix instead of eagle and I took out a jam so I lost 4 tenths start value.”

Anne at Gymnastike has posted some great videos from the Illinois-Oklahoma-Michigan meet.

At the West Point Open, Penn State bounced back after last weekend’s loss to Michigan to sweep all six events in the seven-team field (Penn State-352.00, Temple-342.30, Army-326.20, Navy 324.00, Springfield-322.20, Arizona State-318.90, Brockport-247.30).  The stars for the Nittany Lions were Parker Raque (FX-15.30, SR-15.10, VT-15.00, AA-85.50), Tony Beck (PH-15.30), freshman Tristan Duverglas (VT-15.10) and Scott Rosenthal (SR-16.10).  The two-day meet concluded on Saturday with event finals.  Raque and Duverglas again posted the top scores on FX-15.10 and VT-15.30, respectively.  Miguel Pineda (15.10) wrested the SR title from Rosenthal, while freshman Craig Hernandez won his first collegiate event title on PH.  In his second meet, Hernandez is starting to fulfill his well-touted promise, and he did so in style.  His 15.65 is the nation’s top score so far, and it broke the school record of 15.60 previously held by Casey Sandy.

Notable scores were also posted by Navy’s Andrew Faulk (AA-84.60), Temple’s Adam Al-Rokh (AA-83.20), Taylor Brana (SR-15.00), Alex Tighe (HB-14.30) and Evan Burke(FX-15.10), Army’s Jonathan Hoey (PH-14.90), ASU’s Alex Gaudauer (SR-14.50) and Springfield’s Ryan Ponce (SR-14.90).

Of special note, the Brockport team deserves some link love here and some support!  The Golden Eagles are led by junior Ron Ayell0 and freshmen David Albaranes and Alec Chatterton.

Down on the Farm at the Stanford Open, the host team (348.40) won their 2nd straight meet over Cal (339.00), Nebraska (332.60) and Washington (251.20).  In what one team called “the meet of his life,” Eddie Penev accomplished just that, posting career highs in the AA (89.20), SR (14.50), PB (15.00) and FX (16.20).  Joining in the fun were James Fosco on SR (15.20), Gabe Alvarado (T-1st PH- 14.50) and Sean Senters on VT (15.00).  Freshman Brian Knott placed 3rd AA (84.90).  Top finishers for Cal were Donothan Bailey (AA-87.40, FX-15.40), Glen Ishino (T-1st PH-14.50, FX-14.80) and Daniel Culpepper (PB-14.50).  Leaders for Nebraska were Grant Perdue (FX-14.80, VT-14.70) and Andreas Hofer (AA-81.50).  Top scores in the elite division were posted by Bryan del Castillo (AA-86.90, FX-15.10, PH-14.40), Sho Nakamori (SR-15.00, PB-15.30) and Kyle Bunthuwong (VT-14.80, HB-15.10).  Akash Modi (88.70), Travis Gollott (84.00) and Andrew Botto (81.85) were the high scorers in the Level 10 club division.

Speaking of club competition, Marvin Kimble (Level 10 – 14/15) scored an outstanding 90.10 last weekend at the Swiss Cup.

Minnesota made the trek to Colorado Springs, where they posted a season-high team score (345.40) in their victory over Air Force (337.70).  Top performing Gophers were Zack Chase (1st-VT-14.70), Russ Dabritz (1st-PB-15.10), Josh Wokurka (1st-FX-14.70, T-1st-HB-14.40) and freshmen Ellis Mannon (1st-PH-14.50) and Steven Jaciuk (T-1st-HB-14.40).  Leading Air Force’s season-high team effort were Devin Menefee (1st-SR-15.00) and Mac Ritchie (T-1st-HB-14.40).

UIC hosted a dual meet, where visiting Iowa prevailed (332.10-325.20).  The Hawkeyes’ Javier Balboa put up a season-high AA (84.80) and a school record 15.00 on PB.  Anton Gryshayev added titles on PH (14.20) and SR (14.10), and teammate Broderick Shemanski took the HB title (14.20).  Dan Zerbel was the Flames’ top performer, as he won the FX title (15.10).  The Flames also claimed team titles on FX and PB.

Most teams this weekend either rested or gave limited lineup positions to Winter Cup-bound gymnasts, which is understandable since Senior National Team spots are up for grabs and because this is an Olympic year.  The college action will start back up in earnest in a couple of weeks, and look for individual and team scores to be on an upward trajectory leading up to conference and NCAA Championships.  I plan to attend Winter Cup to watch the Saturday night competition.  If you see a bearded tall, skinny guy either walking aimlessly along the runway, or standing up against the rail clutching a program in one hand and an iPhone in the other, please approach and say hello!

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Other top performances of the weekend were Penn State’s Scott Rosenthal on SR (16.30), Mikulak on FX (15.60), Glen Ishino on PH (15.00) and Stanford RS frosh Sean Senters on VT (15.20).  Speaking of vault, if you noticed a relative reduction in scores, it’s because of the new NCAA scoring rule that devalues the competitors’ start value by a full point.  Senters, who sat out last season with a knee injury, was featured in a great interview on the Stanford website.

Penn State was the highest scoring team by over 5 points (349.80).  This bodes well for the Nittany Lions, as they were without the services of All-American Miguel Pineda, Felix Aronovich and freshman Craig Hernandez. Penn State is going to be a force on rings, especially with Pineda in the lineup.  Nihir Kothari’s 15.80 was huge, helping boost the team rings score to 61.20.  The Lions have five guys on rings capable of hitting 15-plus. Expect the Lions to put up big numbers on pommel horse and floor as well.  This team will not only contend for the Big 10 title, but should also make a lot of noise at the NCAA Championships.

Without a doubt, though, it was a weekend dominated by low team scores, which has completely tweaked the college rankings.  Unlike the relative subjectivity of ranking college hoops and football, the current MAG ranking system is based strictly on scoring.  As it usually turns out, the highest scoring teams during the regular season, don’t always win the title.

With both teams less than full strength, Cal upended the defending national champs, Stanford, in the Bears’ home opener (340.90-334.80).  Meanwhile, at the Rocky Mountain Open, Oklahoma (343.70) opened with a win over much-improved Air Force (333.30) and Nebraska (331.30).  The Sooners shared six event titles at that meet.  Also competing were the athletes from the nearby Olympic Training Center… John Orozco, Andrew Elkind, Jake Dastrup, Josh Dixon, Jake Martin and Sean Melton.  Orozco put up an 87.50, that included a 15.40 on rings.

Week 1 top scores:

• AA:  CJ Maestas (Illinois-86.50)
• FX:  Sam Mikulak (Michigan-15.60)
• PH:  Glen Ishino (Cal-15.00)
• SR:  Scott Rosenthal (Penn State – 16.30)
• VT:  Sean Senters (Stanford-15.20)
• PB:  Syque Caesar (Michigan-15.50)
• HB:  Paul Ruggeri (Illinois-15.40)

The top club meet of the weekend was at the Windy City Invite, hosted by UIC.  This annual affair featured Saturday night’s collegiate action, and also a regional competition consisting of 6-man teams (Level 10) from most of the regions.  Ohio State (344.50) handled the six-team field by topping Illinois (341.90), Michigan (338.70), Minnesota (338.100), UIC (327.20) and Iowa (316.80).  Led by All-American Ty Echard (14.60), the Buckeyes had three gymnasts score over 14.00 on pommel horse.  Minnesota freshman Kyle Banks made a statement with his 15.00 on floor.  The Gophers show much promise and look to be much improved.

The top team in the regional competition was Region 5 (Bobby Baker, Alex Diab, Trevor Howard, Andrew Rickly, Michael Burns and Kevin Baker).  Posting the top optional scores were Connor Lewis (LV9-78.60), Michael Burns (L10-14/15-83.90) and Trevor Howard (LV10-16/18-86.00).  In the elite division, David Sender, who is taking a year off from vet school to train, posted an 85.15 to place 3rd behind ex-Buckeye Tai Lee (85.80) and Akash Modi (85.65).  Modi placed 3rd in the Level 10 (14-15) division at last summer’s VISAs and 2nd at JO Nationals.

In a battle of three of the top teams in the country, Swiss Turners came out on top over SCATS and Azarian at the Vitaly Scherbo Invitational in Las Vegas.  The scores from that meet have not yet been posted, but Swiss Turners’ Dmitri Belanovski won the AA (86.40) over SCATS’ Alex Powarzynski (83.40) in the 16-18 division.  In the 14-15 division, Azarian’s Marty Strech eked out the win (83.90) over Swiss Turners’ Marvin Kimble (83.30).  Swiss Turners coaches Andrei Kan and Alex Belanovski brought quite a large contingent from Wisconsin for this meet, and they were certainly impressive to watch.  A few notables sitting out this meet were SCATS’ Jesse Glenn and Kanji Oyama, along with Azarian’s Kevin Wolting.  No doubt all three will be ready to go in a few weeks at Winter Cup.

The inaugural Iron Cross Challenge took place in Tacoma, WA.  Proceeds from the meet benefit the Iron Cross Foundation’s scholarship fund.  Also, nearly 2000 meals were donated to the area’s local food banks.  Michigan commit Konner Ackerman easily posted the meet’s highest AA score of 86.10, and won every event except for rings.

The college action will have a full slate again this weekend, and here are some of the top matchups:

• Cal at Stanford (1/21)
• Oklahoma at Ohio State (1/21)
• Illinois at Iowa (1/21)
• Penn State at Michigan (1/21)
• UIC at Minnesota
• Air Force at Nebraska
• William & Mary, Temple, Springfield @ Navy Open
  

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Dmitri moved to the U.S. when he was six-and-a-half years old, and soon took up the sport at age seven.  He and his family have already started the process to become U.S. citizens, and they will achieve that dream in just a couple more years.  After already scoring high enough to qualify for the VISA U.S. Championships the past few seasons, Dmitri will soon be eligible to compete.

Alex was kind enough to provide some comments on his son’s development.  “I never thought my son would be a gymnast because I spent 20 years in gymnastics, and I thought it would be too difficult of a sport for him.  I remember my mom and dad were very worried about me when I was competing, and I didn’t want to become that worried parent.  When you compete, you’re less worried about yourself than your parents or coaches are.  Finally, he came to our gym and was asked to join the gymnastics team, so I agreed, just because I wanted him to become a strong kid.  But then he started to enjoy the sport and started to give me headaches from being worried so much.”

Dmitri has compiled exemplary competition results over the past several seasons.  Here are a few highlights:

• 2011 JO Nationals (Level 10 14/15) – 4th AA, 1st PB, 4th FX, 4th PH
• 2010 JO Nationals (Level 10 14/15) – 7th AA, 3rd PH
• 2009 JO Nationals (Level 9) – 5th AA, 4th PH, 6th PB, 2nd HB
• 2008 JO Nationals (Level 9) – 13th AA, 2nd HB
  

StickItMedia recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dmitri Belanovski, or if you’re on Twitter, @DimaBelanovski:

SiM:  What do you recall from your beginning days in gymnastics?

Dima:  What I recall from my beginning days in gymnastics is how I got started.  I always used to come into the gym to play around, because my parents worked there.  One day, one of the coaches asked me to join his class, so I decided to give it a try and ended up moving up to team and competing.  I also remember winning all around at my very first meet, and I still have the medal hanging up in my room right now.

SiM:  What is the best advice you’ve ever received, and what advice would you give to a young compulsory gymnast?

Dima:  The best advice I have received is to never give up, and that everybody has bad days and bad moments in their life.  This really motivated me to just keep working hard and to move on to the next practice if one practice goes badly.  I would give the same advice to a young compulsory gymnast.  If you can’t get a skill, just keep working at it and it will come to you eventually.

SiM:  Please describe your training experience at Swiss Turners (coaching & teammates).

Dima:  Training at Swiss is a really interesting experience.  We are really close with one another and are almost one big family.  Also, at Swiss we are very competitive with one another.  We always try to find a way to make a contest out of what we’re working on.  I find this very helpful, because we are pushing each other to do our best.  Win or lose, there are never any hard feelings.  At Swiss, we also like to joke around a lot, and we always try to have fun while getting our work done, of course. Another interesting experience is the coaching we have.  We have 3 coaches (Stacy Maloney, Andrei Kan, Belanovski) who all have different experiences with the sport of gymnastics, so you’re always getting a bunch of different corrections, or they all tell you the same correction so you know it’s important to fix.

SiM:  What are your biggest challenges to remaining highly competitive?

Dima:  My biggest challenges are staying healthy and constantly improving on my skills and routines.  I want to keep making my routines more difficult, but also perfecting the skills I have in the routines.

SiM:  What are your most difficult events, and why?

Dima:  The events most difficult for me are high bar and horse.  They are difficult for me because both events are hard to become consistent on.  High bar you have to learn how to catch your release moves consistently, and on horse you just have to learn how to stay on and fight through your routine.

SiM:  Who are your role models, and why?

Dima:  My role model is my dad.  Being my coach, my dad always knows what’s best for me and always knows what to do.  He has helped me so much with my gymnastics career, and has never given up on me.  My dad has taught me a whole lot about never giving up.  He always tells me to try my best, and if I do my job, things will turn out how I want them to turn out.  My dad also inspires me to be the best gymnast I can be, because he went to the 1996 Olympics, so I know that it’s not an impossible goal to go to the Olympics just like he did.

SiM:  What new skills do you plan to add next season?

Dima:  I have added a lot of new skills this year, but a few major ones that I have learned are double layout/whip two and a half on floor, straight body planche on rings, Kas full on vault and yamawakee on high bar.

SiM:  What are your goals for the remainder of your club career?

Dima:  My goals for the remainder of my club career are to keep making National Team, and to get top three in the all around.  Also, keep on making event finals at Nationals and win some events too.

SiM:  Do you plan to compete at the collegiate level?

Dima:  Yes, I do plan to compete at the collegiate level.  It would be an amazing opportunity to compete for any college.

SiM:  Please list three things you would do to help make men’s gymnastics more popular.

Dima:  Three things that I would do to make men’s gymnastics more popular are get it to be televised more on ESPN, make commercials about how great a sport it is and just tell people to come and watch a competition sometime to see if they like it.

SiM:  What are your proudest gymnastics and non-gymnastics achievements?

Dima:  My proudest gymnastics achievements are making the National Team multiple times and winning parallel bars at last years Nationals.  My proudest non-gymnastics achievement is getting good grades in school and always keeping up with my school work.

SiM:  Please describe your best interactions with the Hamm brothers.

Dima:  I’ve known the Hamm brothers since I first started gymnastics.  My best interactions with them was going bowling with them, my dad and Andrei when I was little.  Also, sometimes they would come to my house or Andrei’s house, so it’s nice to be able to talk to them outside of the gym and to see what kind of people they are outside the sport of gymnastics.

SiM:  How has it been to have parents who happen to be gymnastics coaches?

Dima:  I really like having parents that are gymnastics coaches.  They always know how to treat an injury, and they can relate to the problems you are having in the gym.  Also, they always know what you’re talking about, unlike a normal parent that you would have to explain the skills you’re doing at the gym, or to explain the scoring system.

SiM:  What is your favorite thing about walking into the gym every day?

Dima:  My favorite thing about walking into the gym everyday is seeing all my teammates that are like brothers to me and working hard to improve on all my routines.

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Well, he did it.  He turned professional.  He, of course, is John Orozco.  His many fans will lament not seeing him compete collegiately, but we’ll see plenty of Orozco over the next several years.  Given his young age (19), he has plenty of time to pursue a college education, if he so chooses.  In the meantime, his Olympic dreams will dominate.  Given his personality, he ought to fetch some great endorsement deals, especially if he strikes gold in London.  At the recent National Future Stars competition in Colorado Springs, he volunteered his time to hold court with dozens of young gymnasts.  They listened to him talk about what it takes to be an elite athlete with rapt attention.  He loved doing it.  John Orozco is going to be a great ambassador for the sport.

More on Orozco… He was just invited to compete at the ’12 American Cup, which will be held on March 3 at Madison Square Garden.  This will be a special homecoming for Orozco, as the Bronx native will be able to compete in front of many local friends and family.  I would venture to say that Orozco’s selection is a great way to expose him to additional international competition, and was largely a just reward for his 5ht place AA finish at Worlds.  The American Cup is the first big international meet of the year.

Good news for Jonathan Horton.  His surgically repaired foot is healing up nicely, & he’ll be out of his boot probably around New Year’s.  The speed of recovery will depend upon how much scar tissue is present, but there is no doubt that Horton will be at full speed when it really counts.  He has a great attitude about it, and is using this temporary setback as an opportunity to improve on events such as pommel horse.

Be sure to check out Andy Thornton’s Christmas wish list… it’s a 4-part series.

There are some great videos being posted of collegiate gymnasts preparing for the upcoming season… Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.

NCAA signings – A very strong ’12-’13 NCAA signing class emerged last month, and several more will be signed during the next signing period in the spring.  Among the notable signees were Jake Martin (Ohio State), Jesse Glenn (Army), Jon Deaton (Stanford), Max Mayr (Illinois), Trevor Howard (Penn State) and Kanji Oyama (Oklahoma).  Another stalwart from this class, Timmy Wang, is rumored to be bound for Air Force.  The service academies are lining up some superior talent, and appear to be heading for a more prominent position in the college ranks.  See our list of current/rumored signees. If you know of others, please let me know, and I’ll add them to the list… ron@stickitmedia.com

Hard to believe a new season has already started.  Some of the more noteworthy early meets were the Liukin Invitational, Pineapple Express and the Region 5 Cup. In January, the season kicks into high gear with top meets such as the Vitaly Scherbo Invitational, Windy City Invite, Rocky Mountain Open and the Stanford Open.

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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.

Air Force – Timmy Wang (South Coast)

Army – Jesse Glenn (SCATS), Aaron Yoshizuka (SCATS)

Cal – Kevin Wolting (Azarian), Kevin Tran (Azarian) Travis Cameron (Stanford Jr.), Ryan Patterson (Stanford Jr.) TJ Bzoskie (Victory), Kevin Ko (Golden Bear), Kyle Zemeir (Top Flight)

Illinois – Max Mayr (Universal), Joe Peters (Parkettes), Logan Bradley (Bartlett’s)

Iowa – Emmanuel Monroy (WOGA), Del Orozco (Buffalo Grove), Matt Loochtan (Buffalo Grove)

Michigan – Konner Ackerman (Metropolitan)

Minnesota – Paul Montague (Swiss), Danny DiBenedetto (Daggett’s)

Nebraska – Sam Chamberlain (GTCO), Ethan Lottman (Cahoy’s), Austin Epperson (Elite Champion)

Ohio State – Jake Martin (Orlando Metro/OTC), Alex Johnson (OSU Boys)

Oklahoma – Kanji Oyama (SCATS)

Penn State – Trevor Howard (Hocking Valley)

Stanford – Jonathan Deaton (Daggett’s), Dennis Zaremski (World Cup), Kevin Baker (Queen City), Brandon Beckhardt (Hot Shots), David Frankl (U.S. Dev. Ctr.)

Temple – Aaron Meland (Apex)

*** 11/10 Update ***

The first two days of the early signing period have been really slow.  Ohio State’s signing of Jake Martin is an obvious sign of the new coaching regime’s recruiting prowess.  Martin, of course, trained at Orlando Metro under new OSU Assistant Coach Cas Suarez.  He is now training at the OTC for his final club season.  Gym fans are now wondering if OTC teammates Sean Melton and Jake Dastrup will eventually join him in a couple of years.

Illinois Head Coach Justin Spring has accomplished quite a recruiting haul by signing Max Mayr, Joe Peters and Logan Bradley.  This is, so far, the largest group landed by any team.  However, the early period lasts several more days, and many announcements are still to be made.

Jesse Glenn’s decision to attend West Point has raised many eyebrows.  He will be joining his older brother, Josh, who is currently a freshman.  This was a great decision by Glenn, who will be going to China next month to train for a week with a U.S. contingent that includes, Martin, Mayr, Timmy Wang, Jonathan Deaton and Trevor Howard.  Will Glenn’s West Point signing start a trend?

The lack of announcements so far, while not uncommon, is rather disappointing.  It sure would be a lot more fun if MAG was more like college hoops and football.  In those sports, signing announcements are made with much fanfare and publicity.  College MAG would be wise to treat their signings similarly, which would generate much-needed publicity and excitement for the sport.

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Looks like Alex Naddour might end up putting his Oklahoma career on hold, at least through the Olympics.  He might return to Arizona to train with Mike Naddour (his Dad).  That would enable to him to target his training to maximize his Olympic Team chances.  Staying at OU would force him to train according to the team’s needs.  Interesting revelation in that it really changes the dynamics for the Sooners’ NCAA team championship aspirations.  It also has potential implications for recruiting and scholarship offers.

Penn State head coach Randy Jepson has tabbed All-American Miguel Pineda as the team captain.

The NCAA is making a few rules changes, with the biggest one being that all D-Score vault skills will be reduced by one point.  What’s this going to do?  Make the meets easier to follow?  One thing for sure is that VT scores will be lower, and it could end up benefiting the better vaulters with higher skills, as long as they execute well.

After Arete Gymnastics coach Bob Gauthier was picked to replace Paul Hamm as Assistant Coach at Ohio State, many were wondering what Junior National Team member Jake Dastrup would end up doing.  Dastrup has a few years of club competition left, so he ended up moving to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center.  He will join fellow high schoolers Jake Martin and Sean Melton.  Martin will soon be announcing where he’ll be attending college next fall.  Gauthier was an excellent pick by OSU’s Rustam Sharipov. He will provide great coaching and long-term stability to the program.

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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 that nothing has been made official, and the following information is based on past and current discussion gleaned from various sources.  Level 8 will become the new Level 9, but will include just 11 and 12 year-olds, while Level 9 will consist of 13 and 14 year-olds.  In other words, the new Levels 8 and 9 will more or less be a bifurcated version of the current Level 9.   Finally, Level 10 will consist of two groups — 15-16 and 17-18.  All four optional groups will have two separate tracks or subdivisions, which may end up being labeled “Junior Elite” and “Junior Olympic.”   There would also be four separate Junior National Teams for each level.  Only “Junior Elite” gymnasts will be eligible to qualify for the National Teams, based on technical sequence and optional routine competition.

Now this is where it becomes interesting.  The makeup of these subdivisions supposedly will be determined at the state meet level.  The gymnasts will be required to complete separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  It is surmised that a weighted average of these two separate routines will compose the final score.  The top scoring gymnasts would go on to compete in the Junior Elite subdivision  at their respective regional meets, while the remaining gymnasts would compete in the Junior Olympic subdivision.  At regionals, only the Junior Elite subdivision would compete separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  The top gymnasts in both subdivisions would qualify for JO Nationals.  Again, at JO Nationals, only the Junior Elites would compete technical and optional routines.  The top Level 10 Junior Elite finishers would qualify for VISAs, and there would still be a VISA qualifier that’s usually held in early July.

Ongoing discussions seem to favor having separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  The technical sequence is being created to force the optional gymnasts to improve and clean up basic skills.  Too many optional gymnasts, while having more advanced skills, are now demonstrating less than optimal form on many of the basic skills.  Having two subdivisions will allow for more qualifiers to nationals, while clearly creating a defined “elite” track.

Two glaring changes are coming to the compulsory levels (4-7).  First, the pommels will be coming off for Level 7 gymnasts!   This will help refine circle skills to enable a smoother transition to the optional level.  Maximum AA scores will be adjusted downward for each level.  The base score will be 10.00, and the maximum scores will be as follows.. Level 4 – 11.7  Levels 5&6 – 12.2  Level 7 – 12.7  These scores are more or less comparable to those that will be achieved at the Level 8 optional level.

Again, these proposed changes are not final and definitely not official.

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Now this is where it becomes interesting.  The makeup of these subdivisions supposedly will be determined at the state meet level.  The gymnasts will be required to complete separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  It is surmised that a weighted average of these two separate routines will compose the final score.  The top scoring gymnasts would go on to compete in subdivision A at their respective regional meets, while the remaining gymnasts would compete in subdivision B.  At regionals, both subdivisions would again complete separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  The top gymnasts in both subdivisions would qualify for JO Nationals.  There, the whole process would be repeated, with the top qualifiers going on to the VISA U.S. Championships.  The assumption being that these qualifiers would most likely all consist of “subdivision A” competitors.  In essence, “subdivision A” would become the “elite” track.  It is unknown whether or not Level 8 gymnasts would be included at VISAs.

Ongoing discussions seem to favor having separate “technical” and “optional” routines.  The technical sequence is being created to force the optional gymnasts to improve and clean up basic skills.  The thinking is that too many optional gymnasts, while having more advanced skills, are now demonstrating less than optimal form on many of the basic skills.  As for the two subdivisions, the thinking is that this will allow for more qualifiers to nationals, while clearly creating a defined “elite” track.

Click here to see document for proposed changes (dated July 2010)

At least three other U.S. collegiate gymnasts have made the trek to compete at the Tokyo World Championships.  Thanks to @CalMensGym for linking to a story about Christian and Jean Monteclaro. The Cal juniors will be competing for the Philippines, accompanied by Bryan Del Castillo, who will be their coach.  Representing Bangladesh will be Michigan All-Big 10 senior Syque Caesar. We hope to get some updates from Caesar, detailing his experience.  No doubt he’ll be sending out some tweets.

Speaking of tweets, Brandon Wynn is now on Twitter.  Well, according to his account, he signed up earlier this year.  He recently tweeted to announce his new blog. Be sure to check it out.  Wynn will be competing at the PanAm Games later this month.

Though it hasn’t been officially announced, six junior gymnasts have been selected to take part in a week-long training camp in Beijing.  Following the camp, a friendly competition will take place between the U.S. men and the Chinese.  The six members of the U.S. Junior National Team making the trip are Jake Martin, Jesse Glenn, Max Mayr, Jonathan Deaton, Timmy Wang and Trevor Howard.

Good luck to the U.S. men in Tokyo!  The qualifying rounds are on 10/9 and 10/10, team finals on 10/12, all-around finals on 10/14 and the event finals on 10/15-10/16.  No webcast for the qualifying rounds, and it will cost $19.95 to access Universal Sports’ live and archived webcasts for everything else.  Sadly, NBC will not televise any of the men’s action, other than providing highlights during the women’s event finals coverage.

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In light of all the controversy that surrounds the Ohio State football team’s NCAA compliance issues, the decision to fire Hamm was understandable.  That said, it’s time to move on.  Many of his fans are expecting a contrite public apology soon, and they are also hoping that Hamm will use this unfortunate experience to launch into a vengeant training mode, wherever that might be.  Out of competition since May 2008, Hamm may not be the same caliber of gymnast he was when he suffered his hand injury at the U.S. Championships.  At the time, he was arguably at the top of his game.

Hamm does not need to get himself into all-around shape to be a significant contributor for the ’12 Olympic Team.  The team could use him on three or four events, which could ultimately prove to be what puts the team in decisive medal contention.  First things first, though.  It has been expected that Hamm will compete for the first time in nearly four years at February’s Winter Cup.  If so, that will be the first major step in Hamm’s quest to compete in his third Olympics in the last twelve years.  That would be quite a feat, and one that his fans are hoping he will accomplish.  Onward and upward.

According to the results from the ’11 JO Nationals, Hocking Valley had the most gymnasts that placed in the top 36 in all three age groups–six.  They had two in the 16-18 division, one in the 14-15 division and three in level 9.  Tied with five each were Swiss Turners and Daggett’s.  Several gyms had three who placed in the top 36.  Of course, these numbers do not account for gymnasts out with injuries, just a snapshot for that particular weekend.

It was a busy week at the Olympic Training Center, as the World Team and Pan Am Teams had their training camps.  Competition will soon be picking up with a flurry of activity.  Worlds is about a month away, the Pan Am meet will take place at the end of October, and regional Future Stars qualifiers are in store in early October.  The national Future Stars competition will be held the first weekend in November.  Before we know it, the collegiate and club season will commence.  2012 is going to be a very busy year!

Justin Spring and his lovely wife Tori were recently in SoCal for a wedding.  While they were in town, a little recruiting was in the cards at a local gym.

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