2008 NCAA Event Finals

There were some amazing things at this year's NCAA event finals. The format is ten athletes compete and eight become All-Americans. Some notable achievements:

Tim McNeill defended his Pommel Horse and Parallel Bars titles. He three-peated on PH, outscoring the next closest competitor by .7. He major competition came from Illinios freshmen Daniel Ribeiro who was ranked above him, but a hand slip during the middle of his routine caused him to fall. Tim then went on to win PB by .65, successfully defending his title from last year. The most amazing part is Tim has received the All-American distinction five times in his career for individual events and each time he has won. Three times on PH and twice on PB. That is so crazy. Everytime he All-Americans, he wins.

Other notable performances go to Jon Horton. He won Rings with a 16.125, increasing his career event titles to 6. He leads the OU record books in most event titles in a career and All-American honors. His total All-American honors increased to 18 this weekend. Not to mention his three Team Titles and a second place showing last year.

David Sender of Stanford got 2nd on Rings and Vault and fourth in the All-Around. His three All-American honors makes him the all time leading Stanford male gymnast with 9 career All-American honors. He dethrowned Dan Gill, the 2004 Nissen-Emery Award winner. Sender's All-American honors are three on Vault, three on Rings, and three in the All-Around. He broke Stanford's record even withou receiving any All-American honors his freshman year.

Lastly, freshman Sooner Steven Legandre won Floor and Vault and dethrowned two time defending Vault Champion, David Sender of Stanford, and two time defending Floor Champion, Jon Horton. His floor score was 16.1 from a 16.5 start and his vault was a 16.4 from a 16.6. He also received All-American honors on high bar.

As for teams, Stanford had a record 15 All-Americans this weekend and the Sooners had 13, both teams far outpaced the rest in All-American honors.

I was amazed by the level of competition. I had only been watching the USA and International competition for a while (and Stanford's Dual meets), but this was incredible.

Legendre is going to do big things in the future for sure, and I believe we're going to have more than a few NCAA alumni representing the US in China this summer which is a huge step.

For a while we had a lot of non NCAA competitors at the top (the Hamms, Brett McClure, Jason Gatson, Sasha Artemev, Sean Townsend, Todd Thornton, etc.), but the NCAA is making a come back with Dave Durante, Kevin Tan, Jon Horton, David Sender, Sho Nakamori, Guillermo Alvarez, Justin Spring and several more...I couldn't be happier.

I can't wait for USAs and Trials...

Stephen Legendre is amazing, but I was sad to see the gymnast from Minnesota (I think)  not win vault.  He was throwing a piked double tsuk and scored a 16.80 on it in the season. 

Casey - you're totally right, that vault is absolutely amazing. He nailed it one of the other days of competition. His name is Mitchell Mays

This video isn't perfect quality, but it's still incredible:

I totally agree. I think everyone was a little sad that he didn't win. His average throughout the season was a 16.65, which is higher than everyone else's START!

But if you want to talk about high starts, Legendre's floor is so sick. He has a 16.5, .2 higher than any other competitor in the NCAA. He had to start adding skills that he can't count in his 10 skills. For example, he used a whip-2.5-brani down the side and does not count the value of the brani, he uses it for the .1 in connection. So crazy. He scored a 16.1 in event finals! I think it would be awesome to be able to say, I score what you start from, because he definitely can. Props to great gymnastics.

Here is Steve Legendre on Floor doing his championship routine:

This is Tim McNeill's gold metal worthy PH and PB routines from NCAA event finals 2008:

Paul Ruggeri's HB winning routine:

Jon Horton's Ring routine:

Steve Legendre's Vault: