NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Week 2 Recap: W&M shock Navy, Stanford survives scare

By Aidan Giusti | January 21, 2025
William & Mary's Niko Greenly at the 2024 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships.
© Amy Sanderson/Gymnastics Now

It was a big weekend in NCAA men’s gymnastics: the Navy Open, Windy City, and the Rocky Mountain Open all took place and each had their own bit of excitement. All NCAA teams with the exception of Cal were on the floor this past weekend, and there were already some notable improvements. The highest score opening weekend was a 318.450 (belonging to Stanford); this week that would have been the sixth highest score in the country. Teams are slowly finding their rhythm and settling in.

Keep reading for the top stories of the week.

Top Scores of the Week

Team

Stanford repeated as the top team of the week with a 328.850 – more than a 10-point improvement on Week 1. Not only did Stanford narrowly edge Oklahoma, the team came from behind in the final rotation to claim the win. The Cardinal struggled at times throughout the meet and had to count some falls but ended up claiming three event titles: Asher Hong on rings (14.85), Taylor Burkhart on vault (14.75), and Colt Walker on p-bars (14.35). Ian Lasic-Ellis added p-bars (14.2) and high bar (13.45) as he looks to once again become a mainstay in the Cardinal’s lineups. Not that anyone forgot, but Stanford reminded us that they will fight until every routine is over.

Individual

  • All-Around: Sam Phillips (Illinois) – 80.1
  • Floor: Brian Solomon (Navy), Chase Mondi (Nebraska) Brigham Frentheway (Oklahoma) – 14.0
  • Pommel Horse: Patrick Hoopes (Air Force) – 14.95
  • Rings: Asher Hong (Stanford) – 14.85
  • Vault: Taylor Burkhart (Stanford) – 14.75
  • Parallel Bars: Colt Walker (Stanford), Logan McKeown (Michigan) – 14.35
  • High Bar: Caden Spencer (Ohio State), Taylor Christopulos (Nebraska) – 14.1

Rocky Mountain Open: Rocky start, exciting finish

While it ended up being an exciting competition, the Rocky Mountain Open was hard to follow at first. The multi-screen viewing and no commentator paired with a lag in the live-scoring made it hard to figure out what team was on what event and who was competing when. The comp also featured two GymAct programs (Arizona State and the Rocky Mountain Mavericks). 

The Sooners definitely gave the Cardinal a run for their money as they continue to show the NCAA that they are there to win. While only counting one score in the 11s and one in the 12s (both on pommel horse), the highlight for the Sooners was definitely their 56.95 vault rotation in which all four Sooners notched scores above 14.

Nebraska began its season in Colorado and posted an impressive 320.450 to finish third. That included counting some falls and other mistakes. Air Force followed behind with a 311.550, and Simpson placed fifth with a 291.150.

Qualifying to Winter Cup from the meet were Air Force’s Erich Upton – the all-around winner with an 80.0 – and Nebraska’s Alex Nitache, who finished with a 77.6. In FIG scoring, which is slightly different from NCAA and used for Winter Cup qualifying, Jun Iwai of Texas Dreams tied with Nitache’s 77.4, but USA Gymnastics said the FIG tie-break process was used to break the tie.

Navy Open: William & Mary stuns, Navy struggles

Springfield College and William & Mary traveled to Annapolis for the Navy Open, which saw the Tribe put up a 306.150 to claim the team title. The Tribe also claimed three event titles: Connor Barrow on vault (14.0), Evan Wilkins on p-bars (13.4), and Ricky Pizem on high bar (13.5). A nearly 6 point improvement over Week 1 saw the Tribe put up the 10th best mark of the weekend – a marked improvement after finishing last season ranked 14th out of 15. It’s also the first time an ECAC team defeated Navy – who has won the past six conference titles – since 2018, when the Tribe topped the Mids at the 2018 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships.

Navy struggled, especially on pommel horse (44.9) and still rings (48.7). Freshman Saran Alexander made his debut for the Midshipmen with a 12.25 on pommel horse – the team’s only score above 12 on the event. Despite a strong second half, the Midshipmen were unable to dig themselves out of the hole they found themselves in halfway through, finishing with a 303.150. Team result aside, Brian Solomon had himself a good competition, notching a 14.0 on floor for the title, as well as winning the all-around with a 77.15.

Springfield finished less than a point behind the Tribe with a 305.300. Devon Felsenstein claimed the pommel title (12.95), and Will Wilson claimed the rings title (13.05).

If this meet was any indication of what’s to come in the ECAC this season, we will need to keep our eyes on things because things seem closer than ever.

Illinois wins Windy City, Michigan not yet competing Olympians

Illinois joined Nebraska as the last two teams to kick off their seasons in Week 2. The Illini handedly defeated Michigan, 321.700-316.600. Sam Phillips, a sixth year grad transfer from Nebraska, made his debut for the Illini and impressed with the rings title (13.9) and the all-around title (80.1). Illinois claimed three other event titles: Nathan Whitaker on floor (13.7), Brandon Dang on pommels (14.7), and Amari Sewell and Garrett Schooley tying on vault (14.45).

Phillips also qualified to Winter Cup with his all-around performance, and Sasha Bogonosiuk of Gymkhana Gymnastics earned the second spot.

Despite losing, the Wolverines still improved almost 6 points week-over-week. Strong p-bars and high bar rotations helped Michigan close the gap a bit as Logan McKeown (14.35) and Robert Noll (14.05) claimed those respective event titles. The absence of a few high-profile Wolverines, namely Olympic medalists Fred Richard and Paul Juda, was hard to miss. One can assume they are on different training plans with Winter Cup and other potential elite assignments coming up, but they’re expected to compete sooner or later.

Ohio State, Penn State win home openers

Ohio State posted a 319.700 to defeat Greenville (303.150) at home. The Buckeyes also claimed every event title. Most notably, Kameron Nelson (13.75 on floor, 14.55 on vault) and Caden Spencer (13.95 on p-bars, 14.1 on high bar) claimed two each. Nelson repeated his triple pike, triple tuck floor routine; the routine itself was much cleaner, but he did go out of bounds on the triple tuck.

Penn State defeated Army at home, 316.900-306.500. Highlights of the comp were Army’s Maddox Pabellon going 14.0 on pommel horse and Penn State’s Matthew Underhill with a 14.2 on the rings. Josh Karnes, who recently committed to EVO Gymnastics ahead of his graduation in the spring, competed on pommels (13.5), p-bars (13.6), and high bar (13.2).

A note on Winter Cup qualifying

The final Winter Cup qualifying meet is the Stanford Open this upcoming weekend. The top two (2) non-qualified all-around athletes from each of the four (4) designated qualifier events will qualify to the USA Gymnastics meet. After all qualifying meets, the next three (3) all-around athletes from the combined rank order all-around results from all four Winter Cup qualifier events who are not already qualified will earn spots. In addition, there are other ways athletes can qualify for the meet. See below for the pre-qualified athletes and other qualification and entry procedures.