Still thinking about the second day of the Junior men's competition in St. Paul. That was amazing. Adrian de los Angeles quietly had a great AA (84.65) in the early session. The top four gymnasts from the two junior divisions ended up competing in the evening session with the seniors. Meanwhile, the rest of the juniors, along with a smattering of seniors, competed in the early session. After a quick perusal of the math, de los Angeles had put himself into strong position [...more]
Danell Leyva followed up his Day 1 performance (92.50) with an equally outstanding one in the finale (91.30) as he coasted to his first Senior U.S. Men's Gymnastics all-around title. Leyva hit 12 for 12 as he bested his World teammate Jonathan Horton by 2.75 points. Horton kept it close until he fell doing a Cassina on high bar. Leyva is now arguably America's premier gymnast, and still has room for growth. Also packing his bags for the Tokyo World Championships will be young [...more]
Danell Leyva posted a career high all-around score of 92.50 to easily outlast Jonathan Horton (90.40) in Day 1 competition at the 2011 VISA U.S. Men's Gymnastics Championships. Who needs to put up huge floor and vault scores to win a title? Not Leyva, especially when he's busy cranking out parallel bars (16.20) and high bar (16.90) scores like nobody's business. It's only one day, however, and he has one more day to prove he's America's best gymnast, but his 2.1 lead over Horton is [...more]
Swiss Turners Gymnastics Academy, located in West Allis, WI, is developing a most impressive roster of young optional gymnasts. Vitali Kan and Josiah Eng both placed in the top 36 in the Level 9 AA competition at the recent JO Nationals. Steven Jaciuk and Paul Montague ended up in the top 50 in Level 10 (16-18). Jaciuk will be competing for Coach Mike Burns at Minnesota in the upcoming season. Meanwhile, Swiss had two of the top 5 all-arounders in the Level 10 (14-15) division. Dmitri Belanovski and Marvin Kimble placed 4th and 3rd, respectively. This powerhouse club, former training home of Paul and Morgan Hamm, [...more]
A six-man U.S. contingent placed 2nd in the team competition at the Puerto Rico Cup. The host team captured the gold by a relatively slim margin (350.00-348.80). In the same meet, Brandon Wynn (87.15) took the all-around silver medal in a tight finish. Illinois' Tyler Mizoguchi (86.45) came in 6th, while Michigan-bound Adrian de los Angeles (83.90) placed 14th. Wynn won gold on rings (15.925) and silver on high bar (14.60), while Mizo added two more medals to the U.S. total with an outstanding [...more]
We finally got to see the list of summer international assignments, published by USAG late last week. No real surprises, and they should provide a good warm-up for VISAs. Headlining the assignments, are those for the Japan Cup. Jonathan Horton and Danell Leyva will be joined by Alex Naddour, Steven Legendre and John Orozco. It's assumed that Horton, Leyva and Naddour will be [...more]
It's been a week since the men's JO Nationals in Long Beach, and the girls' turn was this weekend. Held at the same venue, Long Beach Arena, the best Level 10s in the country competed for top spots on the podium and to impress the dozens of college coaches, who were afforded assigned seating. According to Coach Rick McCharles, who attended both the men's and women's meets, the men's meet was [...more]
In fitting fashion, Adrian De Los Angeles earned a well-deserved national event title on the same apparatus that clinched his Sr. Level 10 all-around title, parallel bars. His 15.00 was a virtual carbon copy of his routine from Saturday afternoon (15.05), and it was good enough by .40 over runner-up Stacey Ervin. It was a great way for Michigan-bound De Los Angeles to end his stellar club career. Later, during the awards ceremony, he was awarded the [...more]
It came down to parallel bars and rings for Adrian De Los Angeles and Jake Martin, respectively. De Los Angeles had a scant lead of .35 points going into the final rotation. With both events being very strong for both gymnasts, it was a breathtaking spectacle. Martin went first and posted a respectable 14.60 on rings. De Los Angeles then proceeded with a clutch performance on one of his better events. His 15.05 was not only the highest score on that event, but it was more than enough to [...more]
Marty Strech needed a 12.30 on pommel horse to at least tie Tristan Burke for the lead going into Saturday's Level 9 all-around finals. Pommel horse is one of Strech's best events, so that minimum score didn't seem to be such a tall order. Well, Strech made it interesting after an atypical fall midway through his routine. Still, he had enough difficulty built in to his routine to [...more]
