Men’s NCAA Gymnastics Week 6 & 7 / Winter Cup

Jesse-Lee Pakele (Ohio State), Yul Moldauer (Oklahoma/5280), Frederick Richard (Michigan), David Shamah (Stanford), Preston Ngai (Illinois) @ Winter Cup.

Watch full replays of Elite Team Cup and Winter Cup with excellent commentary by Paul Juda and Christian Marsh

My brief thoughts on Winter Cup

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Frederick Richard, as he had just come back from doing social media at the Winter Olympics. He clearly didn’t sit around eating pizza, because he did great here, finishing far ahead of the rest of the field while achieving the highest AA score in the world so far (even without USAG bonus). Fred is currently tied with Illia Kovtun for the highest AA difficulty so far this year (31.4). Richard ran away with this but remember that Asher Hong and Brody Malone did not compete here.

Yul Moldauer likely benefited from the unplanned rest he got during his 16-month suspension. He seemed refreshed.

One thing I would never have predicted was David Shamah’s surge to the top (he actually would have finished a little ahead of Yul without bonus). I really did not see this coming. He’s achieving this with good execution. If he can increase his difficulty on rings and high bar without his execution degrading, he could be a real contender.

In contrast to last year, no one was publicly mad about the team selection. People were surprised that Frederick Richard didn’t get any international assignments. Without all the information, it’s hard to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

USAG, please put Winter Cup back in Las Vegas. It was great when combined with Blackjack. The vibe from all the juniors watching their heroes was great.

NCAA week 6 and 7 Big Picture

There were a couple very close meets - Navy won the All Academy meet against Air Force and Army by 0.05 points. In week 7, Army defeated Simpson by 0.15 points.

Michigan easily won against Springfield and Arizona State, and Nebraska did the same against Greenville, Simpson, and William and Mary. Both Michigan and Nebraska got score that are competitive with most of the NCAA. Greenville continues to show they could be a contender.

Springfield has gotten some E scores at home that have raised eyebrows, but they managed the fifth-highest total team E score so far this year in the NCAA at an away meet.

At the Nebraska meet, Simpson achieved its first victory over an NCAA team in program history, finishing ahead of William and Mary. The next week Simpson narrowly lost to Army while setting a program record.

The Details

Team with the most sticks - Army, with 7

Team with the fewest neutral deductions - Army, with none.

Highest team total score - Nebraska 319.65

Highest team total D score - Nebraska 115.1

Highest team total E score - Springfield 206.55

14 + Club (excluding VT)

Sam Brown (AF) - PH (14.3/5.5)

Maddox Pabellon (Army) - PH (14.3/5.5)

Benjamin Thurlow Lam (Navy) FX (14/4.8)

Max Odden (Neb) - HB (14.25/5)

Carson Eshelman (MI) - HB (14.2/5.7)

Charlie Larson (MI) - FX (14.1/5.5)

Nathan York (Neb) - PH (14/5.5)

Met USAG “Target D score”- 5.6, except 5.4 for PB and SR

Aaronson Mansberger (MI) - PH (13.85/6)

Home scores are in red.

Margin is where the leader stood after each rotation. I corrected for teams being on different events in meets that were not head-to-head (unless I couldn’t figure it out)

Full results, school official releases, and full video (if available) are linked below the score breakdowns.