Weekend Gymnastics Guide: Winter Cup & Top NCAA Meets

Another week, another amazing lineup of gymnastics meets on Gymnastike! The headlining event for the weekend is the first big elite meet of the Olympic Year, the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas. We'll also feature a variety of college meets around the country. Below is your weekend gymnastics guide!    Olympic Hopefuls at the 2012 Winter Cup Challenge Thursday Feb 2 - Saturday Feb 4 The Winter Cup Challenge is an annual men's national championships for USA Gymnastics and serves as one of two qualifiers per year for spots on the US Senior National team. After day 1, World medalist John Orozco leads the way with Chris Brooks and Danell Leyva close behind. Shocker of the meet is that 2004 Olympic Champion Paul Hamm failed to advance to Finals.  - Winter Cup 2012 Video Channel - Winter Cup Day 1 recap, results, and finalists - Live scoring for Saturday's Finals     SEC Showdown - #3 Florida at #6 Alabama Friday, Feb 3 Gymnastike intern Ben Smith will feature the weekend's biggest SEC matchup as the Florida Gators, fresh off posting the nation's top team score, head to Tuscaloosa to take on the defending NCAA Champions in front of 10,000+ screaming Bama fans at 7pm CST.  - Florida at Bama video channel - Live stream     Former #1 Nebraska heads to Norman Friday Feb 3 Gymnastike intern Whiteny Ewing will capture the action of this big quad meet as #9 Nebraska, #25 Minnesota, and Centenary visit #5 Oklahoma. The Huskers started off the season with an incredible performance led by freshman all arounder Jessie DeZiel to overtake the #1 ranking for the first week of 2012. Mistakes last weekend led to an upset by Missouri. Watch for them to fire back against a peaking Sooner squad.  - Nebraska, Minnesota, and Centenary at Oklahoma video channel - Live scoring     Unexpectedly Close Matchup - #20 West Virginia at #22 Michigan Friday, Feb 3 The Michigan Worlverines are 5-time defending Big 10 Champions, made the Super Six last year and had high hopes for this season, but after early injuries and slip ups they find themselves in unfamiliar territory, out of the top 20, and at risk of falling to a #20 ranked West Virginia team. The Mountaineers are on a roll, scoring a 195.775 last weekend, and moved up five spots to No. 20 in the GymInfo rankings this week. Gymnastike intern Tori Kane will provide video coverage of the event.  - West Virginia at Michigan video channel - Live scoring     Can Mizzou remain undefeated? - #23 North Carolina State at #17 Mizzou Friday, Feb 3 The Missouri Tigers have had quite the season already, besting #16 Denver at home and upsetting #4 Nebraska on the road last weekend. The young Tiger team and freshman standout Rachel Updike hope to remain undefeated as they host #23 ranked NC State led by seniors Jess Panza and Brooke Barr. Video coverage by Gymnastike intern Nichole Cartmell.  - NC State at Missouri video channel      Think Pink - #18 Arizona at TWU Friday, Feb 3 No. 18 ranked Arizona travels to Texas to face former Division 2 National Champions, TWU, in their annual Pink meet to raise money for breast cancer prevention. This will be our first look at both teams this season. Gymnastike intern Amy Winczura will provide full video coverage of the event.  - Arizona at TWU video channel   Top of the ECAC - Towson at Bridgeport Friday, Feb 3 In a matchup of the top two ranked teams in the ECAC Conference, the Towson University gymnastics team will visit the University of Bridgeport in a dual meet at Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium on Friday, February 3 at 7:00 p.m. Gymnastike contributor David Pendrys will provide video coverage of the event. - Towson at Bridgeport video channel   Big 10 Battle - #11 Ohio State at #19 Illinois Saturday, Feb 4 The No. 19 Fighting Illini will battle the No. 11 Ohio State Buckeyes at Huff Hall on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. with coverage by Gymnastike intern Emily Bayci. Illinois junior Alina Weinstein turned in the best meet of her career to win the all-around title last week at Michigan and is the current Big 10 Gymnast of the Week.  - Ohio State at Illinois video channel - Live scoring     Tri-Meet on Super Sunday Sunday, Feb 5 Maryland plays host to Bowling Green State and North Carolina at 2 p.m. Sunday. North Carolina are the 2-time defending EAGL Champions. Gymnastike interns Danny Sierra and Christine Miller are teaming up to broadcast this event.  - BGSU, UNC at Maryland video channel

Feb 3, 2012

John Orozco Leads Winter Cup after Day 1, Paul Hamm Fails to Advance to Finals

After both sessions of competition on day one of the 2012 Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, John Orozco leads the pack with an 89.350 all around score. Chris Brooks is close behind in 2nd place with 89.200 and reigning US Champion Danell Leyva sits in 3rd despite having 3 uncharacteristic falls, finishing with 87.650.   Competition continues with the Winter Cup Challenge Finals on Saturday at 7 p.m. Pacific time, where the top 42 athletes according to the men's program points system will compete.   The surprise of the day is that 2004 Olympic Champion Paul Hamm failed to advance to Saturday's finals. This was his first competition since the 2008 Olympic Trials. Though it was a disappointing day, don't count him out of the Olympic mix just yet. There were some bright spots in warm up, and he competed very nervous today. Hamm will be back.    Comeback of the day goes to David Sender, 2008 US Champion, competing in just his 2nd competition since retiring in 2009. Sender is currently ranked 1st on vault with a 16.250 for his 2.5 twisting yurchenko.    Below are the top 10 all arounders and event leaders. Click here for full results from USA Gymnastics. Then check out which guys advanced to Saturday's finals based solely on the Men's Program Committee points system.    Winter Cup Day 1 - All Around Top 10 1 John Orozco, USOTC, 89.350 - interview 2 Christopher Brooks, Cypress Academy 89.200 - interview 3 Danell Leyva, Universal Gymnastics, 87.650 - interview 4 Brandon Wynn, Ohio State alum, 87.000 5 Steven Legendre, Oklahoma alum, 86.500 6 David Sender, Stanford alum/training at Illinois, 86.350 7 Paul Ruggeri, Illinois, 86.200 8 Sho Nakamori, Champions Academy, 86.050 9 Ryan Lieberman, Stanford alum, 85.500 10 C.J. Maestas, Illinois, 85.400   Event Leaders: Floor: Steven Legendre,  15.90 (7.0/8.90) Pommel Horse: Glen Ishino, 15.650 (6.70/ 8.95) - video Rings: C.J. Maestas, 15.450 (7.0/8.45)  Vault: David Sender, 16.250 (6.60/9.65) - video Parallel Bars: Chris Brooks 16.00 (6.90/9.10) - video & Danell Leyva 16.00 (7.0/9.40/-0.3) - video High Bar: Chris Brooks 15.40 (6.90/8.50)      20 Point Program Results for Qualification to Finals Top 42 Athletes Qualify to the Senior Division Finals Place - Athlete - AA - Total Points 1 Christopher Brooks  89.2  85 2 John Orozco  89.35  81 3 Danell Leyva  87.65  72 4 Brandon Wynn  87.0  58 5 Sho Nakamori  86.05  54 6 Jesse Silverstein  85.20  54 7 Paul Ruggeri III  86.20  53 8 Alexander Buscaglia  82.0  52 9 Christopher Maestas  85.40  51 10 Steven Legendre  86.50  50 11 David Sender  86.35  49 12 Samuel Mikulak  57.25  48 13 Ryan Lieberman  85.50  47 14 Bryan Del Castillo  83.40  43 15 Adrian De Los Angeles  84.45  39 16 Donothan Bailey  83.350  37 17 Glen Ishino  43.40  34 18 Jacob Dalton  42.75  29 19 Randall Heflin  44.5  29 20 Jake Martin  83.45  27 21 Tyler Mizoguchi  84.6  27 22 Chandler Eggleston  77.0  25 23 Yul Moldauer  79  19 24 Kyle Bunthuwong  82.90  18 25 Ellis Mannon  77.85  18 26 Maximilian Mayr  78.55  17 27 Ty Echard  37.45  17 28 Marvin Kimble  80.55  17 29 Stacey Ervin  67.35  16 30 Hunter Justus  80.80  15 31 Troy Nitzky  27.70  13 32 Ian Makowske  27.20  12 33 Edward Mesa  81.40  12 34 Timothy Wang  81.05  11 35 Alexander Naddour  40.25  10 36 Tyler Evans  77.05  10 37 Akash Modi  83.0  10 38 Seung Tai Lee  81.50  9 39 M. Parker Raque  80.0  9 40 Miguel Pineda  76.7  9 41 Jacob Dastrup  78.35  9 42 Donnell Whittenburg  78.90  6   Did Not Qualify to the Winter Cup Finals Andrew Elkind  66.3  5 Sean Melton  81.1  5 Presten Ellsworth  42.60  4 Dylan Akers  80.85  3 Kanji Oyama  51.2  3 Paul Hamm  55.75  2 Jesse Glenn  53.45  2 Landon Funiciello  25.3  2 Only athletes who received points are listed in the points result

Feb 3, 2012

Seven Winter Cup Storylines

Feb 1, 2012