Men’s NCAA Gymnastics Meet Snapshot Week 4
California @ Stanford 2/2/25
The Basics
Oklahoma holds on to the number one spot, Paul Juda returns to competition, and Army has all 4 of its meets so far in the top 10 total E scores for the season.
Oklahoma and Stanford have established themselves as the leaders so far this season. Although they are the clear leader in difficulty, Stanford is a little tricky to evaluate, as they don’t compete their most powerful lineups at every meet. Illinois and Ohio State, and Nebraska are in the chase pack. Ohio and Nebraska have the difficulty, but so far the Illini have been out-executing them. Michigan is still outside the top 5, partly because stars Frederick Richard and Paul Juda haven’t competed much.
All three Service Academies are in a position to qualify full teams to the NCAA Championships. Hats off to Army, who is competing among the lowest difficulty in the NCAA, but is currently ranked 8th.
Media reports - Gymnastics Now, GymACT official Week 4 summary, The view from Japan
Rankings and video at RoadToNationals
Special GymACT news - Carl Meader, formerly of the University of Washington, has come out of retirement after 6 years to compete for the Bay Area Bandits. A lot of his practice is on a rings set up attached to trees that he built himself. He also helps coach the team. The GymACT week 4 summary has the full story. The report also contains a tribute to Temple Gymnast Tyler Sabapathy.
The Details
Please point out errors if you spot any.
PDF of full results, official school media reports, and full video replay when available are linked under the name of the meet.
Home scores are in red. Stick bonus is included in the D score. Neutral deductions are included in the E score.
Neutral deductions for injury and non-performance-related deductions are not included in the snapshot calculations.
Margin is where the leader stood after each rotation. I corrected for teams being on different events in meets that were not head to head.
Nebraska @ Illinois
Full Results Official Illinois report Official Nebraska report
Samuel Phillips of Illinois was injured in warm-ups, causing Illinois to make lineup changes for all six rotations. Freshman Ian Sandoval was the weekend’s lone AA competitor, finishing with a score of 79.25. The Illini from start to finish. Nebraska started to close the gap on still rings, but Illinois surged ahead on vault and managed to hold onto a narrowing lead to end the meet 0.5 points ahead of Nebraska.
Navy @ Army
Full Results Official Army report Official Navy report Video
Navy overcame an early struggle on pommel horse to defeat Army by 2.7 points. Of note, Army had about 7 points less difficulty, but was able to make it close by racking up the second highest total team E score so far this season, 213.2, behind only Oklahoma’s 213.3 for Jan 25th.
Springfield @ Greenville
Full results Official Greenville report Official Springfield report Video
Greenville won comfortably with a season-high of 308.35.
Michigan @ Penn State
Full results Official Michigan report Official Penn State report Video
Penn State got some new pink uniforms and upset Michigan. It was a close meet until the last rotation, when Michigan had some problems on high bar. Paul Juda returned to competition for the first time this season, scoring 13.55 on rings, 14.05 on parallel bars, and 13.6 on high bar.
Oklahoma @ Ohio State
Full results Official Ohio State report Official Oklahoma report Video
Oklahoma led from start to finish here. Ohio State did not compete its full difficulty, although had they done so it would not have been enough to close the gap. Ohio State did win this edition of the pommel battle, with Parker Thackston besting Ignacio Yockers of Oklahoma 14.5 to 14.3. They will get a rematch at Winter Cup.
California @ Stanford
Full results Official Stanford report Official California report Video
Yahoo founder and Stanford Alum Jerry Yang attended the meet. Let’s hope he liked it. Asher Hong was signing autographs and showing off his Olympic Team Bronze.
Stanford used this meet to give freshman Kai Uemura and Xander Hong (brother of Asher Hong) a chance to debut. They were resting most of their stars, so competed “only” a 116.5 D score. The Bears did keep it pretty close, until high bar where the met the same fate Michigan did at Penn State. Aiden Li of California score 14.65 on pommel horse, the highest score achieved in the entire weekend of competition.
Score Stuff
Scores of 14.5 and above
Aiden Li (California) PH - 5.6/14.65
Parker Thackston (Ohio State) PH - 5.7/14.5
D scores of 5.5 and above
Kameron Nelson (Ohio State) FX - 5.8/13.55
Parker Thackston (Ohio State) PH - 5.7/14.5
Aiden Li (California) PH - 5.6/14.65