MINNESOTA MEN’S GYMNASTICS DOMINATES THE GYMACT EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIPS

April 27, 2024

The MMG team departed the Twin Cities on Friday, April 26th, heading to Cleveland and the GymACT Eastern Championships at the historic Cleveland Public Auditorium, site of the first ever American stop of the Beatles tour, prior to their remarkable appearance on the Ed Sullivan show! MMG put on their own rock-star showing as they pleased the crowd with a record setting performance in Cleveland.

This team continues to show what a fine tuned team can do when all team members are dedicated to a common goal. Minnesota scored a season high and program high team score of 321.00, eclipsing their previous team record of 319.90 at their last team meet in early March at the NIU Invitational.

The team results were as follows:

  1. Minnesota 321.00

  2. Temple 297.45

  3. Iowa 288.95

  4. New York Alliance 282.90

  5. Northern Illinois  282.40

  6. Georgia United 270.35

  7. Florida Storm 189.35

There was an 8th team on hand, the soon-to-be newest GymACT Team - the Indy-Hio Hyenas. They posted a team score of 296.45 but because they are currently a GymACT program that is in ‘impending status’, they were not eligible for awards at this meet. They will become a full fledged GymACT program on June 1st and they look like a program that will be a force to be reckoned with in 2025 and beyond.

Minnesota got started on Parallel Bars with freshman Anthony Nicholas nailing a great set as our lead off man, posting a 12.80. “Anthony had the job of setting the tone for the entire evening as our lead off man on our first event,’ said Head Coach Mike Burns. ‘He did exactly what he needed to do by hitting a solid set. Little did we know what a tone he was setting for the rest of the night!”

The Parallel Bar lineup proceeded to hit all 6 routines to post the highest team score of the night on this event (51.70). Junior team captain Kellen Ryan posted the high score of the night with a 13.2 that was punctuated with a stuck tucked double front dismount! David Grossman posted a silver medal performance with a 13.1, and until the awards ceremony revealed it, Anthony’s 12.8 score held up to put him on the awards podium with a bronze medal!

Off to the Horizontal Bar we went with a commanding lead after the first event. Justin Lancisi was our first man up and put in a routine to remember that was finished with a stuck full twisting double layout. The GymACT stick bonus is critical to a team’s overall score and it was no different for Justin as his stuck D-dismount earned him a bonus of 0.3 points. Another lead off man that got the event firing on all cylinders, finishing the night with a Silver Medal performance and a score of 13.15. A little later in the lineup, freshman Jack Gagamov put his talent to work and won the meet on the event with a huge score of 13.75 which also showed a well executed stuck full twisting double layout. David Grossman rounded out the top 3 spots with a score of 13.05 and a spot on the awards stand with the Bronze Medal.

At this point in the meet, with only two events down, we had already built a significant lead that gave us a little wiggle room. Off to Floor Exercise we went and again we turned to our lead off man to get the momentum in our favor again. Joey Pennell started us off with one of his best routines all year! His landings were solid on all of his passes and he took full advantage of the stick bonus rules on the dismount and was able to post a score of 13.80 which went on to be enough to earn him the Gold Medal. A few routines later, Charlie Larson was able to match Joey’s performance and he too posted a 13.8, which, as we said, was good for a 1st Place tie atop the awards podium. Freshman Henry Counts put in one of his best performances on Floor Exercise with amazing twisting capabilities to post a score of 13.45 which put him on the podium in the Bronze Medal spot which gave us our third straight sweep of the top three places!

Pommel Horse was our next event and Junior Noah Wills had the dubious honor of starting us off and he came through with a clutch performance, hitting and scoring a 12.6, his second highest score of the season. We had a couple of struggles after Noah got us started but the dynamic duo of Kellen Ryan & Jack Gagamov performed at a high level, both in terms of difficulty and execution. Their routines were solid and they were able to garner 13.30 and 13.45, respectively, to take the Gold and Silver medals on the podium.

Still Rings has been one of our more stable events all year and today was no different. From top to bottom, the guys in the lineup performed admirably and successfully, posting the high score of the meet as a team with a 53.75, nearly two points ahead of Temple who had the second highest score on still rings. Freshman Christian Abran led off with a solid hit for a score of 13.05 that led to a string of scores above a 13 from our counting routines. Freshman David Grossman and sophomore Owen Frank posted identical scores of 13.75 that would eventually put them at the top of the awards podium, sharing Gold medal!

With one event to go, it was pretty obvious we were going to win and rather than resting on their laurels and cruising to a victory, these guys put on a vaulting clinic and posted a team score of 57.65, two tenths lower than our highest score of the season! Freshman Aaron Novick got it all started with a beautifully executed full twisting layout Yurchenko with a solid stuck landing to earn a 13.75. Charlie Larson was next with a Yurchenko 2 ½ for a 14.10, then Kellen Ryan with a Kasamatsu 1 ½ for a score of 14.45. David Grossman stuck his Kasamatsu full for a winning score of 14.6, and Ben Letvin put the nail in the coffin with another Kasamatsu 1 ½ for a score of 14.50 and a Silver Medal performance, giving Minnesota their fourth individual event with a Top 3 Sweep!!!

When the All Around scores were announced, we had a 5th event that had no one but Minnesota gymnasts on the podium!! Freshman David Grossman posted his highest score of the season to take home the Gold medal with a 79.75; Kellen Ryan posted another solid score of 79.30 to take home the Silver Medal. Freshman Ben Letvin rounded out the top 3 spots on the podium with a score of 77.50.

All Around winners: Kellen Ryan (2nd), David Grossman (1st), & Ben Letvin (2nd)

As the team waited for the final team scores to be posted there was an amazing feeling of a fabulous performance they just created on the competition floor. We hit set after set after set and finished the night with a 92.8% hit ratio with 11 stuck dismounts throughout the evening.

When the team scores were finally revealed on the scoreboards, the team let out a collective yelp as they realized they broke the elusive 320 scoring barrier with a score of 321.00. That was a phenomenal way to build our confidence as we prepare for the National Championships in Daytona Beach on Saturday May 11, 2024 at the Volusia County Ocean Center.

Congratulations to this amazing team who continues to compete at a very high level of excellence, leading to amazing moments of success. Far from perfect, but extremely successful on the competition floor.

As mentioned, the next and last test for the boys from Cooke Hall will be on May 11th in Daytona Beach when they vye for their first National Title. It’s been our focus all year, a goal that was written down and committed to, and now we are less than a week away from finishing the year on a high note. Defending Champions Arizona State will stand in our way. Not only did they win the title last year, but ASU are perennial champs, having won the team title over 20 times in their history as a competitive club program. Arizona State won the Western Conference Team Title the same weekend we were victorious in the East. It will be an epic battle, and may the best team win.

Our training has been outstanding with the guys staying focused and determined to bring their A-Game to Daytona Beach and come home with the National Title. We’ll have to have another peak performance and we’ll be starting the meet on Parallel Bars again, the same competition order we had at the Conference meet.

The entire meet will be live streamed directly from the competition venue to the GymACT YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@GymACT. More details will be forthcoming on the Live Stream but this a first for GymACT to have the streaming of the meet delivered directly to our YouTube channel so please watch the action unfold on the GymACT YouTube channel.

The meet will get underway on Saturday, May 11th, shortly after the teams March In at 6:00 pm EST. You don’t want to miss the action!!!