MPSF Championships Preview

Note: All rankings are by total score. Stick bonus included in D score. Home meets are in red. Does not include neutral deductions for injury substitution. If the meet happened, I counted it. Please point out errors if you spot any. “Watch lists” are based on scores so far this season, - which isn’t always a reliable indicator. “Watch lists” are in no particular order, and I’m sure I left some deserving gymnasts out. The listed average is the average of all scores, not the 4-score average. If I have no official information a gymnast is injured, he was put on the list.

The grey shading doesn’t mean anything other than I’m not smart enough to get rid of it. Please forgive the out-of-alignment photos and crappy Excel screenshots - I was born in the 1900s.

Can the Sooners protect the Field House?

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships will be like two dual meets (unless something weird happens) - Stanford and Oklahoma will be fighting for first and Cal and Air Force for the final spot on the podium.

Stanford comes in with the highest difficulty not only in the MPSF, but in the NCAA. They consistently compete total D scores in the mid 160s. The only other team in the NCAA to go over 160 is Michigan (they did it once). Where Oklahoma can possibly make up some ground is in execution, where they are on average ahead of Stanford.

Team and AA

As Air Force and California don’t have any scores in the top 10, they don’t show up in the above table, but the teams are very close together in both difficulty and execution

Top 10 team scores for Air Force and California

The AA will have Fuzzy Benas, the #1 ranked all-around gymnast in the nation going up against Asher Hong, who has the fourth highest AA score in the nation so far (Hong isn’t ranked nationally as he doesn’t have enough AA scores for a ranking).

Some gymnasts to watch in the AA (if they compete it) (only high score is listed):

Asher Hong (Stanford) - 86.05

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - 85.2

Taylor Burkhart (Stanford ) - 83.95

Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) - 82.1

Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford) - 81.85

Noah Newfeld (California) - 81.4

Oliver Zavel (Air Force) - 79.7

Erich Upton (Air Force) - 79.45

Garrett Braunton (Air Force) - 79.3

note - Khoi Young (Stanford) and Colt Walker (Stanford) don’t have NCAA scores for the AA, but are capable of doing well if they compete AA).

Events

Oklahoma and Stanford are about even with each other floor (slight advantage - Oklahoma) . Air Force and California are close to each other as well (AF avg score 66.642, California 65.65)
Some gymnasts to watch on floor exercise:

Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) - avg 14.85, high 15.24

Nico Hamilton (Oklahoma) - avg 14.042, high 14.8

Colt Walker (Stanford) - avg 14.1, high 14.65

Erich Upton (Air Force) - avg 13.65, high 14.5

Jack Freeman (Oklahoma) - avg 13.806, 14.4

Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) - avg 13.742, high 14.4

Asher Hong (Stanford) - avg 13.94, high 14.4

Garett Braunton (Air Force) - avg 13.235, high 14.3

Brigham Frentheway (Oklahoma) - avg 14.038, high 14.3

Khoi Young (Stanford) - avg 13.7, high 14.3

Tyler Shimizu (California) - avg 13.75, high 14.2

Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) - avg 13.557, high 14.2

Oliver Zavel (Air Force) - avg 13.325, high 14.15

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 13.675, high 14.1

The MPSF championships will be the battle of the pommel horse stars Khoi Young (Stanford), Patrick Hoopes (Air Force) and Ignacio Yockers (Oklahoma). Oklahoma and Stanford are fairly even here (slight advantage, Oklahoma). Air Force (average 67.042) has a bit of an edge on California (65.871).

Some gymnasts to watch on pommel horse:

Ignacio Yockers (Oklahoma) - avg 14.482, high 15.45

Patrick Hoopes (Air Force) - avg 14.806, high 15.4

Khoi Young (Stanford) - avg 14.26, high 14.85

Zach Nunez (Oklahoma) - avg 14.2, high 14.8

JR Chou (Stanford) - avg 13.888, high 14.7

Sam Brown (Air Force) - avg 13.981, high 14.45

Luke McFarland (Stanford) - avg 13.721, high 14.5

Aiden Li (California) - avg 13.3, high 14.3

Noah Newfeld (California) - avg 13.679, high 14.25

Arun Chhetri (Stanford) - avg 13.84, high 14.25

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 13.493, high 14.15

Jack Matlock (Air Force) - avg 13.571, high 14.05

Stanford dominates the rings, with Asher Hong and Mark Berlaga, which is great for them because normally people don’t fall off the rings. On the other hand, if Oklahoma has an Achilles heel, it’s here. California (avg 65.629) has a bit of an edge on Air Force here (avg 64.933)

Some gymnasts to watch on still rings:

Asher Hong (Stanford) - avg 14.760, high 15.15

Mark Berlaga (Stanford) - avg 14.357, high 14.55

Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford) - avg 13.225, high 14.3

Chris Scales (California) - avg 13.414, high 14.15

Tas Hajdu (Oklahoma) - avg 13.725, high 14.15

Arun Chhetri (Stanford) - avg 13.642, high 14.05

Adriel Perales (Oklahoma) avg 13.528, high 14

Colt Walker (Stanford) - avg 13.75, high 13.95

Zachary Marckx (Oklahoma) - avg 13.470, high 13.75

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 13.475, high 13.7

Garett Braunton (Air Force) - avg 13.28, high 13.7

Oliver Zavel (Air Force) - avg 13.13, high 13.7

This one is a little tricky. Oklahoma is first in the MPSF on vault, but Stanford has the advantage in potential difficulty. Stanford has 3 men with vaults that start at more than 5.2 in difficulty - Asher Hong (6.0), Khoi Young (5.6) and Taylor Burkhart (5.4), but for much of the season these gymnasts did not compete their most difficult vaults. Interestingly, the meet in which Stanford did compete all of these vaults (March 16th against Oklahoma and California) didn’t result in their season high score (close, though). California (avg 69.107) and Air Force (avg 68.508) are about even here, with slight advantage to California.

Some gymnasts to watch on vault:

Asher Hong (Stanford) - avg 14.48, high 15.2

Khoi Young (Stanford) - avg 14.4, high 15.1

Max Bereznev (Oklahoma) - avg 14.6, high 15

Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) - avg 14.479, high 14.95

Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) - avg 14.564, high 14.9

Jasper Smith-Gordon (California) - avg 14.67, high 14.7

Leo Koike (Oklahoma) - avg 14.292, high 14.9

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 14.5, high 14.85

Erich Upton (Air Force) - avg 14.275, high 14.8

Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) - avg 14.056, high 14.75

Colt Walker (Stanford) - avg 14.4, high 14.65

Advantage - Stanford. Stanford has more difficulty than Oklahoma, but Oklahoma can for the most part keep up with them. California (avg. 65.879) and Air Force (avg. 66.142) are evenly matched.

Some gymnasts too watch on parallel bars:

Khoi Young (Stanford) - avg 14.5, high 14.95

Asher Hong (Stanford) - avg 14.733, high 14.9

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 14.333, high 14.8

Luke McFarland (Stanford) - avg 13.88, high 14.6

Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford) - avg 13.783, high 14.55

Noah Sano (California) - avg 13.35, high 14.5

Oliver Zavel (Air Force) - avg 13.9, high 14.3

Noah Newfeld (California) - avg 13.65, high 14.3

Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) - avg 13.67, high 14.3

Colt Walker (Stanford) - avg/high 14.25

Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) - avg 13.793, high 14.05

Theodor Gadderud (California) - avg 13.8, high 14.

Oklahoma is ranked #1 in the nation on high bar, while Stanford is ranked sixth. On the other hand, Stanford has about the same potential difficulty. If any event takes Stanford down, it will probably be high bar. Air Force (avg. 61.875) has more difficulty on high bar than California ( avg. 63.736) does, but so far on average California has been outperforming them in total score.

Some gymnasts to watch on high bar:

Kelton Christiansen (Oklahoma) - avg 13.867, high 14.7

Jack Freeman (Oklahoma) - avg 13.627, high 14.5

Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) - avg 13.771, high 14.25

Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford) - avg 13.95, high 14.4

Fuzzy Benas (Oklahoma) - avg 13.625, high 14.2

Garrett Braunton (Air Force) - avg 12.875, high 14.1

Brigham Frentheway (Oklahoma) - avg 13.367, high 13.9

Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) - avg 13.094, high 14.05

Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) - avg 13.519, high 13.85

The Big Picture

Roadtonationals put together a score projection for the highest team score possible if everyone got their high score in a single meet.

Stanford - 434.65

Oklahoma - 431.05

California - 418.2

Air Force - 416.8

If Stanford hits, they will win. If they don’t, and Oklahoma has another perfect day like they did at Rocky Mountain Open, they might not.

California and Air Force too far behind in difficulty to contend for the top spot, but it should be an interesting battle between those two for third.

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