by: Kensley Behel

The Winter Cup Challenge is a three part competition. The Juniors competed earlier this afternoon and we will be live blogging the Senior prelims and the finals. Start lists and live coverage can be found here. Most recent routines will be seen at the top of the page. All times are EST.

Final Standing after Day 1.

1. Mikulak 86.300 2. Kimble 83.500 3. Modi 83.350 4. Bailey 83.050 5. Melton 82.850 6. Neff 82.700

Yoder (FX) Double double, front lay front 2/1, back 5/2 go almost gainered barani, back 3/2 to front tuck 1/1, stuck back 2/1. 13.25

10:44 Powarzynski (PB) Struggles in the beginning. Healy, peach, giant, back toss, 1/4 push to handstand, shot on the Stutz, (feed switched to Robert Neff so I’m not sure how it ended.) 13.05

10:39 Melton (FX) front double pike small hop, hops through the twist connections, strong through the handstand press series, back 5/2 to barani, stuck back 2/1, Really high triple twist to finish and fights hard to stick the dismount. 14.1

10:38 VanWickelen Azarian to iron cross, up to straddle planch to strong handstand, front giant, looks tired in the 3/2 tucked dismount and takes a step forward.

Kimble (PH) Legs keep separating through the routine, almost comes off a couple times, very piked in the hips through the spindles, pushes up through the dismount.

11:32 Mikulak (HB) Kassina, Kolman, Lay out tkatchev, Tkatchev directly to tkatchev 1/2, 1 arm, tak 1/2, hop 1/1,endo, STUCK double double. 14.7

11:31 pm Bower (PB) peach (struggles) suarez, healy, Diam, back toss, Stutz, Dalton, Stuck the dismount. 13.85

11:31pm Bailey (HB) tak 1/1, tak 1/2, Tkatchev, Tkatchev 1/2, Stalder to yami, endo, hope 1/1, flairs out his 1/1 dismount with a step back.

Rotation 6:

After 5

1. Mikulak 71.6
2. Bailey 69.65
3. Kimble 69.6
4. Modi 69.55
5. Yoder 69.15

11:19 Modi (FX) Piked doulble front, back 5/2 to front 1/1, front 2/1 to barani, very quick through is circles, v press to handstand, front Randi, back 2/1, almost stuck triple to finish! Really nice set! 14. 35

11:18: Melton (HB) Yami, stalder 1/2, Kovacs, Kolman (best I’ve seen all day) hop full, tak 1/2, endo STUCK 1/1 layed out. 13.5

Kimble (FX) Dismounts with a double layout and a step out of bounds. 13.6

11:15 Mikulak (PB) Healy, peach 1;2, giant suarez direct to back toss, bhavsar to handstand 1/2, Tippelt, Stutz, Front double tuck with small hop! Great set! 15.2

11:15 Bower (VT) 14.15

11:05 Diab (SR) Great set for 14.15

Rotation 5:

After 4 rotations:

1. Mikulak 56.4
2. Bailey- 56.1
3. Yoder – 56.05

11:00 Yul (SR) kip to maltese (looks high from this angle), maltese again, yami, straddle planche, wobbly handstand, fights for stuck dismount. 14.2

10:56 Modi (HB) Tkatchev, lay out tkatchev 1/2, (pike up) lay out tkatchev, Tkatchev 1/2, endo, endo 1/2, (very late) has to tuck the last part of the double double layed out dismount to make it. 13.35

Ngai (PH) Cleanly through with a push for the dismount. Still just has leg separations throughout the routine. 14.65

Bower (SR) Looks like grip broke on the dismount. 13.2

10:53 Duran (FX) Stuck double front, STuck double arabian. switch to Kimble on high bar.12.55

Kimble(HB) catches Liukin, nice tkatchev series, 1 arm giant, tak1/1, (struggles out) nice tak 1/2, Tkatchev to tkatchev 1/2, has to weirdly get out of that. Flies of on 1/1 dismount. Really far. 13.75

10:48 Sam (VT) Change of vault to Yurchenko 1.5. 13.55 4.4/9.15 – They must be trying to protect his ankles because that vault is very very easy for him.

Neff (HB) Yami, layout to straddl 1/2 Tikatche, lay tkatchev 1/2, tak, camera went to Sam’s vault. Ends with a nice layout 1/1. 14.15

De Los Angeles and Oyam with strong vaults. 14.65 and 14. 6 respectively.

10:46: Bailey (VT) Kas 1.5 almost stuck.

Start of rotation 4.

After 3 rotations:

1. Sam Mikulak 42.85
2. Marvin Kimble 42.25
3. Alec Yoder 41.9
4. Akash Modi 41.85
5. Sean Melton 41.7

10:42 It looks like Shane Wiskus must have had a great High Bar set. 14.15 – the highest of the meet so far.

10:40 Diaz(SR) Planche lowers to high maltese, jon to yami to wobbly straddle planche, l sit, push to handstand, front giant hand stand. His handstands are nice. Double double to finish with a hop back.

10:39 Modi got a 14.05 on P Bars, but his routine wasn’t shown. 6.1/ 7.95

10:36 Gorgeous Kovacs from Tristan Duran of Minnesota! Finishes with a tripple back dismount. 12.55

Naddour (SR) Naddour looks tired through the whole ring routine, but he holds his positions well. Struggles a bit on the handstands. Really picked full-in with a step. 14.0

Bower (PH) Finishes well. 14.1

Sam (SR) Maltese (high) into a great planche and lowers directly into a strong iron cross. yami to iron cross, kip to jon. up to archy handstand, giant to really archy handstand, falls on triple back dismount. 13.5

10:29 VanWicklen (HB) Yami, stalder, 1 arm giant, tak 1/2,  Kolman really close and has to kip out, Tkatchev clean, 1 more 1 arm giant, Tkatchev 12, Endo and nicely into the full in. 13.05

Bailey Sticks his dismount off Rings. 13.6

Diab (FX) put his hands down on this triple full dismount. 13.6

10:28 De los Angeles has a solid dismount of SR and looks happy with his performance (12.45) while Sadighi stumbles to the side out of his Vault. (12.9)

10:26 Yoder (VT)  Tsuk double. Really slow run. Looks like his steps are off ever so slightly but it doesn’t matter because he just stuck the crap out of that vault right down the center. 13.9/ 9.1 E

10:25pm Yul (PH) Lovely travel flairs, Russian on 1 pommel, Magyar/ Sivado sequence is clean, pushes ever so slightly and falls off a bit into the dismount. 14.2

Rotation 3

AA Standing After 2:

1. Mikulak – 29.35
2. Kimble – 28.9
3. Melton – 28.2
4. VanWicklen – 28.1
5. Bailey – 28.05

10:18 Melton (SR) Azarian malteze, bounce cross, roll  to maltese, kip to handstand – well held, nice through swinging sequence though a little slow, struggle son straddle planche, double double to end, but he starts and ends tucks and in the middle he is layed-out. 14.55

10:16 Dieker (SR) Iron cross, kip up to high straddle planche, giant to handstand, front giant to handstand, yami to john, L sit (not two seconds) wobble handstand. Double double dismount. Hands touch the mat. 12.05

10:14 Merryman (SR) Yami to straddle planche, L Sit, push to strong handstand – a little swing of the rings which will be a deduction, good giant to handstand, Jonasson up to straddle sit, giant to wobble handstand, full-in with a step back. 13.2

10:09 Bower (FX) Nearly stuck double double, front 2/1 to barani, stuck back 2/1, split to pres handstand is well controlled, back 3/2 to front 1/1, looks a little gassed at the end, but holds the back 5/2 to finish. 14.15

10:08: Naddour (PH) Li Ning, nice one hadn spin on one pommel, spindles on the end, travels up and back, and up the horse very well, cleanly into the dismount! Very short and efficient routine. 15.3

10:05 Sam (PH) Mikulak, flip flop series, traveling flairs, russian on one pommel, triple russian on the end that he struggles a bi with, nice through the magyar/sivado series and cleanly up to the dismount. 1465

10:05 Yoder (SR) Up to planche, Joh, to Yami, up to straddle hold to straddle planche (I don’t think he got 2 second sfor that) Wobble handstand, STUCK double double to finish! 13.1

10:05: Bailey (PH) Generally has very piked hips throughout his routine and didn’t swing very smoothly although, he went nicely up into his dismount.

10:04: Robert Neff (VT) Kas double. Nicely done. Small hop 14.0

10:04 Diab (HB) Has to muscle through, clean trhough his Tkatchev, giant 1/2, Tak, winds up well for a good dismount nearly stuck.

10:03 Yul (FX) – caught routine at the flairs. Really beautiful! back 5/2 to barani, back 5/2, Triple to finish with a small hop! 14.7

10:01: Modi (VT) Kas 1.5 – slight leg form and a tiny hop on the landing, but a goo dvault for him. 14.3

10:00: Kimble (VT) Not shown – 14.7

Rotation 2 has started

9:53: Sam Mikulak (FX) front 2/1 to front double tuck, front lay to front double 1/2 out. Lovely well controlled flairs. He is taking his time through the routine, back 3/2 to connection (feed froze), stuck back 2/1, STUCK back 5/2! Great start for Mikulak! 14.7

9:50: Bower (HB), Yami, stalder, 1 arm giant, Tak 1/1 – tucks his legs a bit on each stoop through, Kolamn (legs apart, kovacs (hard to swing out of), endo, Stuck 1/1 double lay with piked hips. 13.15

9:48pm: Powarzynski (HB) caught the lst part, hop 1/1, Rybalko, Tak, A lot of front giant work, ends with a slightly piked 1/1 double layout. 12.2

9:47: Adrian de los Angeles, (FX) Really beautiful lines and toe point. His flairs were lovely! A little bit of crossed legs on his back 5/2 dismount with a slight step!

9:44: Alec Yoder (PH), beautiful really well controlled sequence, nice spindle, Easily up into the dismount. Should be a big score. He reminds me of Louis Smith in how well controlled and patient he is on the horse. 14.85

9:44 Michael Willner with some pretty basic tumbling throughout, but he is known for his Rings so look for that! He won at P&G’s last year.

9:43 Kimble (SR) 14.2

9:43: VanWicklen (VT) 14.55

9:42: Kyle King (VT) with a solid Handspring double front on vault! About a .3 step on the landing. He is one of the leaders on Nebraska’s team having score a 15 this season already on Vault. 14.35

9:41pm: Joel Diaz (FX) lands his double piked arabian well, but struggled to control the landing afterwards. Some Stuck, some struggles.

It looks like Yul will not be doing the AA here. According to Mark Williams, he will compete Floor, Horse, and Rings.

9:38pm: Sean Melton (PH) Swings well and is extended. Rough transition through the cuts. He has to push a little bit through to the dismount, but holds on well. 13.7