NCAA Snapshot Week 4

Jr. Gymnasts meet their heroes at Stanford Open - my picture

The Big Picture

The big news of week 4 of men’s NCAA gymnastics competition was the upset win of #5 Illinois over #1 Oklahoma. Illinois started out with a slight lead after floor exercise, but Oklahoma put itself back in front until parallel bars, where they scored 63.35 (4.45 points below their next lowest season parallel bars score of 67.8). Oklahoma had very slightly more difficulty on parallel bars than did Illinois( 25 to 24.6 total D score), so the difference lay entirely in execution. Oklahoma regrouped on high bar, but it wasn’t enough. Oklahoma ended up with slightly higher difficulty (155.6 total team D against 152.8 for the Illini). The Illini achieved a season team high total (407.2), tied with Nebraska for the 6th highest team E total this season (254.4) and tied for 7th with Nebraska for the highest average E score/routine (8.48).

Notably, Oklahoma was without Fuzzy Benas, who was out with the flu.

This meet got a lot of attention on social media from people who don’t normally comment on men’s gymnastics, let alone the NCAA.

People enjoy close meets, unexpected results, and underdogs,all of which this meet delivered. In men’s NCAA gymnastics, such instances are not common due to the uneven distribution of resources among teams. However, they do happen, and I predict this season will witness more.

Oklahoma just had one of those days (of which they haven’t had very many over the years). As the saying goes, “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,… nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all”(Ecclesiastes 9.11).

Full replay of Oklahoma @ Illinois

Stanford put their World stars in their lineups at the Stanford Open, with Asher Hong and Khoi Young competing all-around and also doing their harder vaults. Stanford ended up with less total team difficulty than at their first meet (163.4 versus 165), but ended up with a higher total score (415.25), reclaiming the top spot in the rankings from Oklahoma.

Full replay of Stanford Open

Full results of Stanford Open including Juniors, GymACT, and Seniors competing as individuals.

There is much more to explore - here are all the resources you need to know what happened in week 4.

For rankings, results, and videos Roadtonationals

Media reports: Gymnastics Now MPSF, Gymnastics Now B1G, Gymnastics Now ECAC, Neutral Deductions

School reports: Army, California, Illinois, Navy, Oklahoma, Springfield, Stanford, William and Mary

Quick Hits

Stanford has the highest total difficulty on a single rotation of any team so far this year - monster D score total of 30 on PH.

Last weekend showed difficulty isn’t the only thing. It’s not likely that a 10 point advantage in difficulty can be overcome with execution, but 3 or 4 points can.

15 + Club

Asher Hong (Stanford) SR - 6.1/15.15

80 + AA

Asher Hong (Stanford) 84.95
Khoi Young (Stanford) 84.85
Noah Newfeld (California) 81.4
Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) 80.5

Routines with D scores high enough to have made 2023 World Championship Event finals.

Mark Berlaga (Stanford) SR - 6/14.45
Jr Chou (Stanford) PH - 6.1/14.1
Brandon Dang (Illinois) PH - 6.1/13.85
Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) FX - 6/14.5
Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) HB - 5.6/14.1
Asher Hong (Stanford) SR - 6.1/15.15
Asher Hong (Stanford) PB - 6.1/14.85
Asher Hong (Stanford) HB - 5.5/12.8
Aiden Li (California) PH - 6.1/12.15
Noah Sano (California) PH - 6/12.75
Packer Thackston (Ohio State) PH - 6.1/14.75 (obtained at Stanford Open)
Ignacio Yockers (Oklahoma) PH - 6.5/14.25
Khoi Young (Stanford) PH 6.5/14.8

Check out the charts below for a snapshot of last weekend’s meets. Home scores are in red. Stick bonus is included in the D score. Neutral deductions are included in the E score.

For the purposes of the snapshots, I used California’s total score without the 1 point neutral deduction they got on PH (I have no idea why that happened). These are meant to be a picture of the gymnastics that happened, not an official document.

NCAA Snapshot Week 5

NCAA Snapshot Week 3