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NCAA

NCAA Men's Gymnastics Week 6 Recap

Everything that happened in Week 6 of the NCAA Season

February 12, 2024

OU took the top score for week 6 of the NCAA season, Asher Hong earned the nation's top score in the all around, but did it wearing a different teams jersey. and Ignacio Yonkers earned the highest score on any event this season. Air Force won the All Academy Championship without one of their coaches. Springfield had the highest score in eight years, plus updates from the EVO Elite competition.

2024 EVO Elite College Invitational

Illinois: 416.150

Simpson: 366.100


The weekend started off with the first ever EVO Elite College Invitational where Illinois faced off against Simpson, while athletes from EVO's Elite team and GymACT teams Georgia United and Florida Storm concurrently competed. Illinois swept all of the events with Connor McCool taking floor, Brandon Dang taking pommel horse, Ashton Anaya took still rings, Amari Sewell took vault, Will Hauke took Parallel bars and Ryan Vanichtheerano took high bar. Head coach Daniel Ribeiro said,


"Today was so much fun. It was an incredible opportunity competing against the U.S. National team and putting up our season high at the end of this five week stint. Now we need a bit of rest and recovery before the second half of the season gets underway."

While Simpson is still a bit behind Illinois in terms of difficulty and execution, they have a lot to be proud of. They again broke their own school record and Brian Rollison broke his own school record on still rings with a 13.90.

Simpson also set new team records on high bar for the second straight week in a row. National team members from Evo also took to the competition floor, though they weren't competing in the NCAA division. They took all of the events except for pommel horse. Shane Wiskus took vault with a 14. 95. Curran Phillips took parallel bars with a 15.8. eight, which is four 10s higher than Lucas Dalzer won the world championships with last year. Current Phillips also took horizontal bar with a 14. 7. Brandon Ding was the only of the NCAA gymnast to break into that rank. And he got a 14. 95 on pommel horse. Alex Dieb got a 15. 1 on. Still rings Shane Whiskas took floor with a 14.

7 and also won the all around with an 82. 600. All of these athletes will showcase their talents at the 2024 Winter Cup in Louisville to try and re earn spots or earn spots on the U. S. national team.



The All Academy Championship

Air Force: 397.250

Navy: 390.100

Army: 382.500


The All Academy Championship that took place in Texas this week. Air Force won over Navy and Navy won over Army, each with a gap with about seven points. Air Force brought a strong lineup with three all-arounders. Eric Upton won the all around over Garrett Broughton, who won over Oliver Zavell. Air Force brought this strong performance without one of their coaches, David Henderson. Henderson has been removed from the Air Force lineup on their website and no statement has been given as to why he is no longer listed as a coach for Air Force.

In terms of the performance by Navy, head coach Kip Simmons said, I was proud of the guys tonight, even though we had more mistakes than we could afford if we wanted to win the meet, we kept getting knocked down and we got back up and kept punching all the way through till the end.


Michigan vs. Nebraska

Michigan: 416.150

Nebraska: 366.100

University of Michigan defeated Nebraska 407. 7 to 398. 85, and Paul Juda set a new career high in the all around with an 86. 2. He also won event titles on floor, pommel horse vault, parallel bars. and high bar. His vault score leads the country with a 15. 1. Nebraska started strong through the first few rotations, but they weren't able to hold their lead.

However, they did still have some standout performances, specifically from Zach Tiedemann, who ended up getting a career best of 15. 0 on vault, which is just 0. 05 shy behind Husker gymnast, Charlie Giles impressive score of 15. 05, which was garnered in 2022. Well, this performance It did not showcase what Nebraska is totally capable of.

Don't count them out this season. They are still ones to watch for the Big 10 title and to look forward to for a place in the podium at the 2024 NCAA championships.


Oklahoma vs. California

Oklahoma: 417.800

California: 400.80


The Oklahoma Sooners put up the highest score of the nation this week with a 417. 80 as they took on Cal at home. California put in a 400. 80, which is the first time that they've broke the 400 mark in nearly two years. Cal's 400. 8 smashed its previous season high of 396. 30. Fuzzy Benas was back in the all around this week and won the all around score with an 83.350. He also won the vault title with a 14. 85. Ignacio Yockers put in a 15. 45 on pommel horse, which is the highest score recorded on any event to date this year. Junior Emre Dodanli again won the floor exercise and got his second 15 plus score this season on floor, winning the event. As well as teammates, Kelton Christiansen on high bar and Zachary Marckx on still ring.

For Cal, Noah Sano was the lone event winner and he took the parallel bar title.

Penn State vs. Ohio State

Penn State: 407.500

Ohio State: 399.300

After a disappointing performance last week, Penn State bounced back and this is what head coach Randy Jepson had to say. He said:

We talked a lot about mindset and execution this week. This meet bore that out. The guys focused and came in and had a 90 percent hit ratio and had six or seven stuck landings. That's the kind of performance we were looking for.

From my perspective, this was the first complete performance of the year for Penn State, and there's a lot of talent and a lot of promise in this team. Ethan Dick earned his first career pommel horse event, scoring a 13.15. Ian Raubal took his career high on parallel bars and also won the event ahead of Josh Karnes.

Michael Jaroh earned his first title on vault this season with a 14. 5 and also took third on parallel bars. Michael Artlip finished the season on floor with his career high 13. 8. And actually, Akseli Karsikas competed on floor for the first time in his career to place third with a score of 13. 7. Ohio State's Kam Nelson took home two event titles, one on floor where he stuck his final pass, earning a 14.4 and also got a 14. 2 with a stuck dismount on rings. Jacob Harmon made his season debut with a win on high bar and scored a career high 13. 95, also with a stuck dismount.


Stanford vs. Team USA

Team USA: 415.650

Stanford: 410.300


Stanford took on many Stanford gymnasts competing as part of Team USA, as well as the Bay Area Bandits, a gym act team that was joined by Cardinal alum Ian Gunther. Stanford's 410.30 while impressive, does not fully showcase what this team is capable of as their team is split in two. Many of their stars, including Jeremy Bischoff, Asher Hong, Colt Walker, and Coy Young, competed for Team USA and their scores did not count for Stanford.

Team USA ended up winning the event with a 415.65, meaning that technically there is no team left undefeated in the NCAA this season. Asher Hong turned in the top all around score of the year thus far with a massive 86. 850. And he also won four event crowns with Floor, Still Rings, Parallel Bars, and High Bar, and then was the co title victor on Vault with Khoi Young, who also won Pommel Horse.


William & Mary vs. Springfield

Springfield: 397.850

William & Mary: 385.050



Moving over to the final meet William and Mary versus Springfield. Springfield college men's gymnastics put up its highest team score in eight years as it moved past William and Mary with a 397. 85 to a 385. 050. Sam Kaplan took the all around title with a 79. 60. The pride registered the top five scores on both floor and on pommel horse.

Peyton Cramer and Felix Kriedemann hit for 13. 70 to tie for first place, and Kaplan also had a strong showing on pommel horse as well. Sam Lee and Ricky Pizem highlighted individual performances and both won event titles. Lee posted the top score on vault, while Pizem had a career best on high bar with a 13.50. William & Mary also tallied season highs on four events, including floor, pommel horse, rings, and high bar.



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