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 overall depth to build the highest possible difficulty, and then to execute better than anybody else.  For most of the season, that was a winning formula.

On the other hand, Oklahoma and Michigan oftentimes fielded as many as three all-arounders, and indeed at West Point, both teams did.  Illinois and Cal did as well.  What does this have to do with who won the team competition?  Well, it proves that Glielmi’s strategy was sound, but it also proves that Michigan’s depth was on virtual par with Stanford’s, since their scant .70 winning margin was bolstered by Chris Cameron’s winning all-around effort, and Mel Anton Santander’s 3rd-place finish.  Though not all of their scores were counted in the team competition, they made a huge impact.

Supposedly, it all came down to vault (for Michigan) and rings (for Stanford).  But where Michigan really pulled ahead was on floor, pommel horse and rings.  The Wolverines had an advantage of 2.10 on those three events to overcome Stanford’s predictable 1.35 edge on vault.  Parallel bars and high bar were essentially a wash for both teams.

As close as this year’s competition was, next year’s will probably make this year’s pale in comparison.  Next year’s senior class will be the deepest in memory, which bodes well for 2012.  Here are the notables:

• Cal:  Kyle Bunthuwong, Bryan del Castillo
  
• Illinois:  Paul Ruggeri, Daniel Ribeiro
• Michigan:  Chris Cameron, Thomas Kelley, Ben Baldus-Strauss, Ian Makowske
• Ohio State:  Brandon Wynn
• Oklahoma:  Steven Legendre, Ian Jackson
• Stanford:  Alex Buscaglia, Josh Dixon, Tim Gentry, Ryan Lieberman

Six of these outstanding gymnasts are on the Senior National Team:  Bunthuwong, Ruggeri, Cameron, Wynn, Legendre and Gentry.

The 2010 Pacific Rim Championships take place on Thursday (April 29) and Saturday (May 1).  Follow the action on Facebook and Twitter. Danell Leyva has lofty ambitions for this meet, and would like to break 92.  Steven Legendre and Chris Cameron join Leyva in the Senior field, while Dylan Akers, CJ Maestas and John Orozco will represent the U.S. Juniors.

Speaking of JO Nationals, the competition commences next week in Knoxville, TN.  Due to the Pacific Rim competition, Akers, Maestas and Orozco will not be competing.  None are on the latest published roster.  Still, the competition in the Level 10 (16-18) field will be fierce.  Appearing on the roster is 2009 VISA U.S. all-around champion Cameron Rogers.

More international assignments were divvied up today.  2009 World Team member Tim McNeill will be heading to Moscow next month along with Alex Naddour, Brandon Wynn and Paul Ruggeri.  The Moscow Stars World Cup competition will take place May 14-15.  This will be the first big international meet for Naddour, Wynn and Ruggeri.  Senior Team member Tyler Mizoguchi will also make his international debut June 3-4 in Barcelona, Spain at the XXXV Memorial Blume.

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