Jonathan Horton picked up where he left off Wednesday night, improving his all-around score by almost a full point, and held off Danell Leyva to successfully defend his U.S. Championship title. Horton posted a 91.30 to best Leyva's 90.00 in Friday night's competition in Hartford, CT. He hit on all six events this time and even improved his score on pommel horse (14.10). If not for his slightly watered-down high bar routine (14.90) and his lower score (compared to Wednesday's 15.30) on parallel bars (14.90), Horton would have scored [...more]
Jonathan Horton obviously brought his A-game to the first night of competition. He even hit his re-vamped pommel horse routine (13.95). Although he fell on his signature event (high bar... 14.20), he still posted a respectable 90.35, outlasting 2nd place finisher Danell Leyva by a full point. What a weird day, chock full of falls and mishaps. Brandon Wynn tore it up until his 12.35 on pommel horse. Still, this guy hit 15+ on three events to potentially force his hand on the selection committee. Wynn's 16.00 on rings, plus his impressive all-around performance, seems to make his [...more]
High-scoring Jesse Silverstein picked up where he left off at May's JO Nationals by winning the final qualifier (88.10) for the 2010 VISA U.S. Championships. He also racked up the most points (96) as he posted the day's top score on rings (14.75) and had top-5 scores on parallel bars (15.05), vault (15.85) and high bar (14.25). Danell Leyva placed 2nd in the AA (87.70), while fellow Senior Team member Alex Buscaglia placed 4th (86.30) and compiled the second highest [...more]
USA Gymnastics recently posted the VISA USA Men's Qualifier participant list, and it is quite impressive. Predictably, the list for the Senior Division is especially outstanding. Heading that list are Sasha Artemev, Joey Hagerty, Danell Leyva, Alexy Bilozertchev, Thomas Kelley, Wes Haagensen, Ryan Lieberman, Josh Dixon, Alex Buscaglia, Aaron Fortunato, Phil Onorato, Kyson Bunthuwong, Bryan Del Castillo, CJ Maestas, Daniel Ribeiro and Jesse Silverstein. Current Level 10 (14-15) Junior National Team member Jacob Dastrup is also [...more]
Gymnastics fans are starting to come through. Cal's men's gymnastics program needs help now, like no other time. A Facebook fan site has been created by Cal gymnast Daniel Geri, and a donations site is up and running. While supposedly nothing definitive has been planned by the school, Cal officials make it no secret that several programs are on the chopping block, and that Title IX must be factored into the equation. This is a no-brainer, folks. If we want to keep men's gymnastics alive, [...more]
We've been hearing rumblings about the possible demise of the Cal Men's Gymnastics program. Even the women's program is also presumedly on the chopping block. In light of all the budget cuts and the state's overall fiscal degradation, both programs' subsidization is ruffling the tender feathers of the more militant, sports-averse members of the school's faculty. Apparently Cal's athletic department racked up a $1.7 million deficit this past year and received a loan from the school's general fund. We've heard that the guillotine is poised over [...more]
A week after the smoke cleared at West Point, it's a lot easier to analyze the NCAA Championships. Of the top three teams (Michigan, Stanford and Oklahoma), Stanford was the only team not to field an all-arounder in the team finals. Neither did they last season. Coach Thom Glielmi's season-long strategy was to utilize his team's [...more]
Believe it or not, Chuck Conners was the first NBA player to shatter a backboard, albeit he did so during a pre-game warmup with the Boston Celtics. Conners, you may recall was more famous for his television role as "The Rifleman." Well, Illinois' Tyler Williamson became the first gymnast to break one of the [...more]
After initially signing with Nebraska last fall, WOGA's Presten Ellsworth signed a national letter of intent today with Oklahoma. A paperwork snafu scuttled the deal with Nebraska, which led to Ellsworth's deal with the Sooners. Coached by Sergei Pakanich, the six-time Region 3 All-Star and former Junior National Team member offers Oklahoma [...more]
This past weekend was very busy for men's club gymnastics. Every region held their championships except for Regions 1 and 8. Those regionals will be held this coming weekend. Here are the published results for the regions who have so far held their respective meets: [...more]
