Asher Hong wins first national all-around title as college guys put on show at 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships
SAN JOSE, Calif. – While the the U.S. women’s team skews older, the U.S. men’s team seems to be skewing younger, and nothing may prove it more than what happened Saturday night at the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
For the third-straight year a Stanford gymnast won the U.S. men’s all-around title, with 19-year-old Asher Hong taking the mantle in an injured Brody Malone’s stead.
“I’ve put in a lot of hard work in the gym, and the next few weeks, if I’m selected for the world team, then we’re gonna go back [and] work just as hard to perform at the worlds and, hopefully, get the team on the podium,” Hong said after the meet.
Hong won the title with a 170.930 two-day total – the only athlete to surpass the 170 mark – thanks to the bonus system the U.S. men implemented this quad to encourage pursuing difficulty. He had 1.315 in total bonus points for his difficulty on floor, rings, and vault.
Joining Hong on the podium was his Stanford teammate Khoi Young (169.455) and Michigan’s Fred Richard (169.311).
It’s the first time since 1994 that the three all-around medalists have been actively competing in NCAA.
Young suffered a sprained ankle at last year’s U.S. championships that took him out of training for “two to three months,” and that was on his mind coming into this year’s championships.
“Coming into here, I knew it was something that I need to focus in more, because [it’s a] bouncier floor than we practice on typically, so you go too high, you don’t know where your legs are, and that’s when injuries happen,” Young said. “I think that was a big moment for me to mature, because I really had to be more meticulous about my approach and my focus on this equipment… That was a turnaround in my career that really led to me doing well this year, because I’ve had to really focus a lot more to prevent that type of stuff.”
The only change from the Day 1 podium was second place, where Young finished.
2017 U.S. champion and Olympian Yul Moldauer dropped from silver medal position to fifth after two falls – on high bar and floor – earning a 167.446 overall on his 27th birthday. Moldauer won Day 1 without bonus.
In the performance of the day, Colt Walker won the all-around for Day 2 and overall without bonus in just his second meet back after a major injury. Walker earned no bonus on Day 2 and still hit 85, becoming the only one to earn the mark at a U.S. elite meet this season.
The U.S. men’s senior selection committee (SSC) will decide the world team based on results without bonus (the Pan American Games team will be decided with it), so here’s how the overall all-around turned out after two days of competition:
- Colt Walker = 168.700
- TIE Asher Hong + Khoi young = 168.300
- —
- Fred Richard = 167.400
- Paul Juda = 167.15
- Shane Wiskus = 166.850
- Cameron Bock = 166.450
- Yul Moldauer = 165.950
- Donnell Whittenburg = 165.850
- Riley Loos = 165.500
An individual show of depth
For the most part, the event winners from Day 1 won the individual national titles on Saturday, with the only exceptions coming on floor and parallel bars.
Paul Juda rode 9.0+ execution scores on both days to a win on floor, despite having a sub-6.0 difficulty score. Young was the Day 1 leader, but short landings on Day 2 dropped him to fifth.
2021 world pommel horse champion Stephen Nedoroscik was exceptional on horse for the second-straight day, showing the SSC he’s consistent under pressure. The execution was the same, 8.250, but Nedoroscik hit his 6.8-difficulty set on Saturday and swung more free than the first day. It’s a routine that will contend for a world medal if he’s selected to the world team.
2022 world still rings finalist Donnell Whittenburg won his trademark event after going 15+ both days, including earning a 9.0 execution score on Day 1.
On vault, only Ohio State’s Kameron Nelson showed two vaults and, as such, was the only athlete eligible for the title. Nelson showed two clean vaults that both went 9.0+ on Day 2, including a clean double front.
Parallel bars was the only other event that saw a change at the top, with Yul Moldauer usurping Curran Phillips with his consistency. Moldauer went 15.500+ both days, and while Phillips had a massive 16.147 on Day 1, thanks to his 6.8-difficulty, he made a seemingly minor error on Day 2 that ended up taking 0.4 off his difficulty, giving him a 14.744.
Phillips would go on to redeem himself on high bar, where he added in the Liukin after a quick decision in the one-touch – a skill he struggled with all week in practice – and hit to earn a 13.972.
Atop the high bar standings was Fred Richard, who earned the only mark above 15 all week on what is considered one of the U.S. men’s weakest events.
For a play-by-play of the men’s competition, check out our live blog.
2023 Senior National Team after U.S. championships
The new U.S. men’s national team was named Saturday following competition. Here’s who made it (see the selection procedures breakdown here):
- Cameron Bock
- Jeremy Bischoff
- Brandon Briones
- Taylor Burkhart
- Alex Diab
- Dallas Hale
- Asher Hong
- Paul Juda
- Riley Loos
- Brody Malone
- Yul Moldauer
- Stephen Nedoroscik
- Vahe Petrosyan
- Curran Phillips
- Fred Richard
- Colt Walker
- Donnell Whittenburg
- Shane Wiskus
- Khoi Young
Senior development team
- Landen Blixt
- Joshua Karnes
The rosters for the 2023 world championships and Pan American Games will be announced Sunday morning, August 27. Those selected to each team will be automatically added to either the senior national team or senior development team if they have not previously been named to the team.
