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Warm-ups
At this point in the meet, women’s bloggers would be writing about the leotards. Unfortunately, the men’s leotards are rather nondescript. Though, both Alex Naddour and Jake Dalton have opted to wear their U.S. National Team leotards. As I said during the Olympics, they are like mullet leotards–business in the front, party in the back.
Now for a few highlights of warmups: Bobby Baker threw his full-twisting double front. The audience didn’t go crazy as I might have expected, but it was still pretty cool. Jake Dalton and Stacey Ervin, two of America’s best floor workers, are warming up on the apparatus together. Cross tumbling at its finest. Grant Perdue of Nebraska also was sticking all of his landings on floor.
Oh, and Danell Leyva’s lucky towel is here, too, in case you were wondering.
Rotation 1
Jake Martin on VT: Double twisting Yurchenko to a safety roll. He looks disappointed.
Alex Naddour on PH: Li Ning to straddle cuts. Reverse scissors to handstand. Sohn and he’s off. Finishes strong from what I can see.
Jake Dalton on FX: Jumping in mid-routine. Alex and Jake competing at the same time. Double pike Arabian. Back 1 1/2 to double full. Wide-arm handstand. Back 2 1/2 to punch front tuck full. Laid-out Thomas. Ends with a triple full that didn’t quite make it all the way around.
Danell Leyva on PB: Upper arm to straddle cut. Basket full. Basket with form break–off balance and couldn’t get to one rail. Now, basket to one-rail handstand. Giant full. Giant. Stutz. Front uprise to double front dismount. A little cowboy. Nice to see a new dismount from Danell. And Yin ran the entire length of the floor in celebration.
Bobby Baker on FX: Sits down his full-twisting front. Bummer! It was so good in warm-ups. Double pike Arabian. Press to wide-armed handstand. Front handspring to front double full. Double Arabian. Big step. Big hop forward on his double front. Deep breaths before his triple full. (Crossed legs in the air.)
Jacob Dastrup on PB: Kip to handstand. To healy. Basket to handstand. Giant to tuck half to upper arms. Stutz. Missed his hand on his Moy. Double pike with a hop.
Rotation 2:
Jake Dalton on PH: Double scissors. Lots of form on his flop work. Really muscles his dismount, but he stayed on.
Jake Martin on PB: Basket to handstand. Back tuck with 1/2 to upper arms. Back toss with 1/4 turn to handstand. 5/4 straddle to upper arms. Diamadov. Stutz. Step on his dismount.
Yoshi Mori on VT: Front handspring double front. Little hop on the landing. Deeeeeep squat. Those quads were firing hard.
Donnell Whittenburg on VT: Handspring double front. Decent step back on the landing.
Sean Melton on HB: Yamawaki and misses one hand but stays on. Kolman–barely gets hands on. Catches Kovacs close to the bar and does froggy giant afterwards. Full-twisting double tuck with a hop on the landing. He had a rough go in warmups. Will try to find out what’s up.
Jesse Glenn on HB: Stretched Tkatchev. Wild legs on his Rybalko. Adler 1/1. Arms collapse on his Adler 1/2. Stalder. Full-twisting double layout.
Sorry for the holes. I’m fighting with the internet.
Rotation 3
During touch: Stacey Ervin does a front handspring front pike punch front tuck and runs across the gym. Line judge catches him. Bravo.
Stacey Ervin on VT: Big hop forward on handspring double front. But we get a huge WOO! from him! WOO!
Bobby Baker on SR: Missed the interior, but saw the triple back dismount. Bobby is throwing some big skills today. Makes me proud to be a Midwesterner.
Yoshi Mori on PB: Upper arm front toss. Giant tuck 1/2 to upper arms. Tippelt. Moy. Struggles a bit on the handstand. Stutz. Really has to pull his double pike around.
Adrian de los Angeles on VT: Kasamatsu 1 1/2. Tucks it down and sits it down. Rough vault for one of the top NCAA all-arounders.
Donnell Whittenburg on PB: Kip to handstand. Moy. Double front pike to upper arms. Upper arms to front toss. Dimitrenko. Front straddle 5/4 to upper arms. Front uprise to double front dismount. A little cowboy and a big step on the landing.
Jake Martin on HB: Peels off the bar going for his dismount. Arches back. Parademics (Trainers?) on the scene. Praying to the gym gods!
Danell Leyva on FX: Double-double laidout. Tamayo and then drops it low into a deep squat. Thomas. Manna through to handstand. Whip to a 2 1/2. A little sloppy on the form. Handspring Rudi. Double layout, but he’s overtime. Nevertheless, Yin lets out a roar.
Jake Martin gets helped off the mats on his feet. No neck or back brace. Hope he’s okay!
Rotation 4
Grant Perdue on VT:: Yurchenko 2 1/2 with a small step back. Nice high block. A really pretty vault.
Bobby Baker on VT: Only does a laid-out Tsuk. Step back.
Alex Diab on VT: Handspring Rudi. A bit of form in the air, but nice to see a handspring twisting vault. It sets him apart.
Jake Dalton on VT: Kasamatsu 1 1/2–Small hop forward. (That’s one 1/2 twist less than what he performed in 2012.)
Jesse Glenn on PH: A fairly simple routine. Includes plain, ol’ scissors. Magyar and then gets his leg stuck on his Sivado. Fights for his dismount and makes it.
Hunter Justus on SR: Roll to a cross. Inlocate to Jonasson to Yamawaki to straddle plange. Struggles with the position on that strength element. Sticks his full-twisting double back.
Kiwan Watts on HB: Yamawaki with a bit of arm flair. Good speed on his Kovacs. Healy. Jam through to handstand. Endo. Balks on his dismount. A laidout-tucky thingamabob. Not sure what the judges will credit him with.
Stacey Ervin on PB: Diamadov. Stutz. Sasaki. Giant to handstand. L-sit. Press to handstand. Sticks his double pike. Really had to fight for it, but way to use those scrunchy toes. (Please note: I said scrunchy–not scrunchie.) Score 14.200
Sean Melton on PH: I didn’t see the routine, but he received a 14.050.
Rotation 5
Ty Echard on PH: Loses his form on his Wu into his Russian series. Really presses up into his handstand. His circles are beautiful, though.
Danell Leyva on SR: Roll to L-cross. Flip to L-cross. A little high. Jonasson. Yamawaki to straddle plange. Bum is a little high. Front giant. Rings are swinging. Full-twisting double layout with a hop forward. Trademark Yin Alvarez grito. 13.8
Yoshi Mori on FX: Thomas. Double-double. Out of bounds. Back 2 1/2 to tuck 1/2. Bounces into prone fall out of bounds. Front double full and sits down. Triple full and his legs just give out and he falls out of bounds. 11.1
Kristofer Done on PH: Scissors to handstand. Has good rhythm going through his flop elements and then falls on his Magyar. Tong Fei. Struggles on his swing to handstand. No pirouettes. Simple dismount. 12.950.
Sean Melton on SR: 14.150
Rotation 6
Adrian de los Angeles on FX: Tucked double-double. Back 2 1/2 to tucked barani. Flair work. Wide-arm handstand. Cartwheel into the corner. Laid-out Thomas. Triple full to finish. A little leg problems and not quite all the way around.
Danell Leyva on VT: Sits down his Kasamatsu 1 1/2. No Yin cheer for that one.
Jake Dalton on HB: Endo full. Adler half to stretched Tkatchev. Straddle Tkatchev with a 1/2 twist. Really late and does a lopsided giant out of it. Really late twist on his Adler 1/1 to Yamawaki. Double-twisting double layout. Hop on the landing.
Stacey Ervin on VT: Front full to double pike. Little hop. Sky-high Tamayo. Wide-armed press to handstand. Back 1 1/2 to Rudi. Back 2 1/2 to Barani. HOp on landing. Laid-out Thomas in the diagonal. Sticks his Arabian double front.
Yoshi Mori on PH: Falls off. Didn’t see on what skill.
Marty Strech on FX: Nice high double-double. Hops on one foot trying to save it and he’s out of bonds. Front double full. Wu Guonian (Back 1 3/4). Back 1 1/2 to front full. Back 2 1/2.
Jacob Barrus on FX: Full-twisting double layout. Falls on his 1 1/2 to front double full. Back 2 1/2 to front full with a side step. Double full. Split press to straight-arm handstand. Arabian to punch front tuck 1/2. Sits down his double Arabian dismount. Tough way to end a meet.
Just waiting on the final scores.
The Top 10 All-Arounders after 2 sessions:
1. Adrian de los Angeles, Michigan: 85.800
2. Danell Leyva, Universal: 85.500
3. Jake Dalton, Oklahoma: 85.400
4. Eddie Penev, Stanford: 83.800
5. Akash Modi, Monmouth: 83.750
6. Sean Melton, USOTC: 83.500
7. Sean Senters, Stanford: 83.050
8. Glen Ishino, Berkeley: 82.950
9. Matthew Felleman, Penn State: 82.050
10. Kevin Wolting, Berkeley: 81.650
The top 42 advance to finals: Combined results here
Videos of select routines can be found on the USA Gymnastics YouTube Page:
Session 1
Session 2
