In a Friday battle in Columbus, 4th-ranked Stanford posted their season-best team score of 355.80, as they upended 5th-ranked Ohio State. The first few rotations were spectacular, as Ohio State posted a respectable 59.00 on FX, led by freshman Danny Steiner's 15.25 and Misha Koudinov's 15.05. It was then on to PH for the Buckeyes, where they absolutely tore up [...more]
Oklahoma (357.05) and Stanford (351.04) both hit season highs for team scores, with the Sooners compiling the nation's best so far. In the weekend's top AA battle, Jake Dalton (90.5) outshined Eddie Penev (87.90). Dalton's score is now the season's high, and only the second score of 90.00 or above (Sam Mikulak-90.00). On top of the 1.0-point lower start value on vault [...more]
Danell Leyva and John Orozco did absolutely nothing at the American Cup to dispel the notion that they are lead-pipe cinches to earn spots on the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team. Many in the media say that Leyva came from behind to win the gold. Nonsense! All he had to do to win it was to [...more]
Seven-time All-American and Stanford grad Josh Dixon will be competing this weekend at the Houston National Invitational. It will be his first major competition since injuring his achilles tendon shortly after the 2011 NCAA Championships. It was there, [...more]
Penn State compiled the nation's season-high team score of 355.50 in their victory over Ohio State (347.20). The Nittany Lions overwhelmed the Buckeyes on all six events, including winning margins of over two points each on SR and HB. The nation's top rings program produced an average score of 15.21, led by Scott Rosenthal (16.10). The Lions, led by freshman Tristan Duverglas' 15.25, averaged an impressive 15.05 on [...more]
LAS VEGAS -- AT&T actually did me a favor Saturday night. Instead of tweeting some commentary at Winter Cup, poor 3G service enabled me to sit back, relax and watch some interesting men's gymnastics. John Orozco blew me away with his incredibly consistent across-the-board scoring on all six events. Orozco improved his AA score by a full 2 points, thanks to his near perfect [...more]
John Orozco picked up where he left off last October at the World Championships. Orozco is the Day 1 leader at Winter Cup, after a day of many lackluster performances, especially on pommel horse. He needed a 15.45 on his last event (vault) to tie 1st session leader Chris Brooks, and he ended up with a 15.60 to give him 89.35 for the day. Orozco posted top 5 scores on [...more]
International Gymnast yesterday posted a spirited article by Ward Black about Paul Hamm. Black lamented the lack of USAG press coverage about Hamm's upcoming appearance at Winter Cup. Compounding the challenge of generating earned media for Winter Cup is that it's once again being held on Super Bowl weekend. Also making a comeback to the big stage at Winter Cup is [...more]
Another busy weekend in the college ranks. The day's best battle was Michigan hosting top-ranked Penn State. The two teams were neck & neck after four events, and it came down to PB and HB. The Wolverines' Syque Caesar spearheaded his team's 1.45 point victory on PB with a 15.40, and added a 14.70 on HB to add a cushion to the final margin... 340.30 to 338.45. Caesar also added a 14.80 on FX and a 14.70 [...more]
The 2012 Men's Gymnastics season is officially underway, with a full slate of NCAA action and some prominent club invitationals. The college MAG action was actually a mixed bag, especially due to many gymnasts sitting out either to injury or because of the upcoming Winter Cup. Those who did compete, mostly did so on a few events. However, among the notables competing AA, Illinois freshman CJ Maestas turned in [...more]
