What a night!  Jonathan Horton launched a late drive to overcome David Sender’s otherwise dominating performance.  Horton’s 15.90 on what else, high bar, did the trick.  Didn’t he do something similar about this time last year in Beijing?  Horton posted an astounding 91.25 to take the lead after Day 1.  Who said he wasn’t ready?

David Sender charged to a commanding lead after posting outstanding scores of 15.85 on rings and 17.05 on vault.  Correct us if we’re wrong, but 17.05 on vault has to be the highest score in the world on that event.  On top of that, he also had the evening’s highest score on floor (15.65).  If not for Horton’s last minute heroics, Sender would have definitely made a statement as being America’s top gymnast, not just for this year, but putting an exclamation mark on his last year’s U.S. Championship title.  In hindsight, wow, did Sender get screwed last summer, or what?  Being the classy young man that he is, he let his actions speak for themselves.

As for Tim McNeill, what a great meet he had!  McNeill went into this meet with the reputation of being a pommel horse prodigy.  Many observers believed he needed to nail his horse routine to gain a spot on the World Team.  Well, he didn’t hit on pommel, nor his other strong event, parallel bars.  What he did do was nail a great all-around, perhaps the best of his career.  McNeill garnered an 88.50 to place third.

Former Ilini, Wes Haagensen, had a great evening, with a fourth-place tie with Danell Leyva.  Haagensen placed third on rings (15.45) and second on parallel bars (15.25) to tally an impressive 88.50.  Teen phenom, Danell Leyva, posted the same all-around score and had the evening’s highest score on parallel bars (15.40).  Leyva was outstanding on high bar (15.85) and floor (15.10) to cement his World Team chances.

Steven Legendre failed to hit his 6.9 floor routine, but he did post a great second place 16.30 vault to help propel him to a sixth place finish.  Cal teammates, Kyle Bunthuwong and Glen Ishino posted identical 88.00 scores to tie for seventh place.  Olympian Joey Hagerty was consistent on all events except for a 12.00 on his nemesis rings which left him in ninth place.

Illinois gymnast, Daniel Ribeiro, solidified his World Team chances by absolutely obliterating the pommel horse field with a blistering 15.90.  Ribeiro is no fluke. The 2009 NCAA pommel horse champ is making a strong argument to be America’s best on this event.  Ribeiro should start packing his bags for London.

Day 2 is going to be phenomenal!