Paul Juda, Taylor Christopulos headline College Gymnastics Association’s 2023 award winners

Nebraska’s Taylor Christopulos was named the NCAA men’s Gymnast of the Year and Michigan’s Paul Juda won the Nissen-Emery Award on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s NCAA Championships in State College, Pennsylvania.

Illinois floor and vault specialist Connor McCool won Specialist of the Year, and Stanford’s Asher Hong was awarded Rookie of the Year for his standout freshman campaign. 

Christopulos competed in all seven of Nebraska’s regular season meets and all-around four times. He also finished second all-around at the Big Ten Championships after leading his team to a third-place finish and first on vault to earn Nebraska’s second-ever Big Ten event title. Earlier in the season, Christopulos qualified for the U.S. men’s senior national team at Winter Cup. 

McCool’s specialist honor comes after the Illinois gymnast won floor at the Big Ten Championships, sticking four of six passes and extending his strong season on the event. McCool has hit every floor routine he’s competed this season and ranks No. 1 in the country on the event with a top score of 14.9. The senior is known for his ability to consistently stick difficult elements: a 2.5-twisting double back and back 3.5 twist among them. 

Hong competed in each of Stanford’s regular season meets and enters the NCAA Championships ranked first on two events: rings and parallel bars. The Cardinal freshman performs some of the most difficult routines in the country on floor, rings, vault, and parallel bars, and he’s the only NCAA gymnast to have competed a 6.0-difficulty vault with his intricate Ri Se Gwang. Hong has scored as high as an 84.4 in the all-around this season and helped lead Team USA win gold at the DTB Pokal meet in Stuttgart last month.

Juda was sidelined by injury this season, but the Nissen-Emery winner won the all-around and vault titles at last year’s NCAAs and has represented Team USA on the international stage. Juda earned six All-American nods at last season’s championships and placed first in both the all-around and on high bar at Big Tens. The Michigan gymnast is a psychology major with a GPA of 3.644.