NCAA Snapshot week 2

Week 2 of the 2024 men’s NCAA gymnastics season is here, and the big news is Stanford’s explosive break from the starting gate, with a score of 413.8 (total D score 165. only 0.8 lower than their D score at the 2023 NCAA Championship) - their highest opening meet score since 2017. Stanford big guns were out in force, with World Team members Asher Hong, Khoi Young, and Colt Walker competing. Hong and Young did not compete their most difficult vaults, and Young competed a PH routine with a D score 0.7 less than the one he competed at Worlds, so look for Stanford’s difficulty to further increase.

But there’s more…Oklahoma is fired up after their 4th place finish at the 2023 NCAA Championship (and 4th place in CGA preseason coaches poll), so they threw down a score of 413.6 (D = 158.6). Oklahoma may also be working on some upgrades.

MIchigan is still holding a pair of aces (Fred Richard and Paul Juda) in it’s hand, but has yet to play them. They were still able to hold off Illinois at the Windy City Open in a meet that went down to the last rotation (the meet could have gone either way). Michigan came in with a D score of 153 to Illinois’ 151.8 - a fall and a shuffle or two separated the teams.

Ohio State is right in the mix, with a D score of 154.3. They did not have a great meet, but their errors came on events (vault, pommel horse) where they have the capacity to score well. I predict they will improve on their score of 395 at their next meet.

I have one more thing to say. The men’s NCAA live scoring seems to be going backwards. For teams that use RTN for live scoring, it’s not working well (or at all). I never saw any scores during the West Point Open. It doesn’t matter whether or not people understand the numbers if they can’t even see the numbers.

That’s the big picture (as I see it), but there is much more to explore. Below are all the resources you need to know everything that happened in week 2.

For rankings, results, and videos, check out Roadtonationals

For detailed meet reports, see Neutral Deductions, Gymnastics Now ECAC, Gymnastics Now MPSF, and Gymnastics Now B!G.

Official school reports: Air Force, Army, California, Greenville, Illinois, Michigan, Navy, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Simpson, Springfield, Stanford, William and Mary

Quick Hits

Greenville is maintaining its momentum with a program record 387.35. And Greenville did this with the same average E score as the University of Michigan (8.402). Greenville is currently third in the nation on vault.

Returning to competition after much time off:

Darren Wong - California
Fuzzy Benas - Oklahoma
Logan Myers - Illinois

Freshman continue to step up:

Tas Haidu and Zachary Marckx bringing support for Oklahoma on still rings.
Peyton Cramer with a 14.7 on pommel horse for Springfield.
Brandon Dang (6.5 PH) and Garrett Schooley (5.6 VT) bringing difficulty to Illinois
David Shamah brings a handspring double front to Stanford.

Next week - Nebraska has it’s first meet of the season at the Rocky Mountain Open (at Air Force versus Oklahoma and Rocky Mountain GymACT ).

Men who scored 80 + in the AA:

Asher Hong (Stanford) - 84.85
Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) - 83.25
Michael Artlip (Penn State) - 81.4

Men competed routines with D scores high enough to have made event finals at the 2023 World Championship:

Emre Dodanli (Oklahoma) FX (6.0/14.75)
Ignacio Yockers (Oklahoma) PH (6.5/13.85)
Patrick Hoopes (Air Force) PH (6.5/14.35)
Jack Freeman (Oklahoma) HB (5.4/13.95)
Garrett Braunton (Air Force) HB (5.4/13.5)
Connor McCool (Illinois) FX (6.1/14.1)
Brandon Dang (Illinois) PH (6.5/13.65)
Ashton Anaya (Illinois) SR (5.8/14.35)
Javier Alfonso (Michigan) SR (6.1/15.1)
Crew Bold (Michigan) HB (5.6/14)
Packer Thackston (Ohio State) PH (6.1/12.8)
Asher Hong (Stanford) FX (6.3/14.4)
Asher Hong (Stanford) SR (6.1/14.6)
Mark Berlaga (Stanford) SR (5.8/14.2)
Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford) PB (6.0/13.85)
Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) HB (5.6/13.85)
Brandon Nguyen (Stanford) HB (5.6/14.05)

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.

NCAA Snapshot Week 3

How to follow men’s college gymnastics