Our boys in Maroon & Gold posted their highest team score of the year at the 2026 GymACT Nationals held in Oklahoma City on Saturday May 9th.

Posting a team score of 308.80, Minnesota was able to take home their second consecutive Team Runner Up plaque in the 16-team field of GymACT teams.

While many teams would be thrilled with a National Runner-Up finish – and we were – we still fell short of our team goal of bringing home our second Team Title in three years!

Arizona State finished ahead of the Gophers with a team score of 315.50 to win their 6th GymACT National Team Title in the 8 years of GymACT existence.

“This meet had plenty of ups and downs,” stated head coach Mike Burns. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes early on in the meet, but I’m really proud of how we never quit and kept fighting all the way to the final routine of the final event.”

The meet took a surprising turn from the start. We opened the meet on Parallel Bars, one of our strongest and most reliable events all season, but a few missed routines put us behind immediately. In each of our previous four meets, we had scored above 51 on PB, but this time the mistakes dropped us to a 49.10. After the first rotation, we were in seventh place among the eight teams competing for the National Title, while the other eight teams competed in the Commissioner’s Cup Division under a 3-up, 3-count format. Seventh place was an unfamiliar position for us, and we knew we had some serious work to do to climb back up the standings. Even so, we were only 3.70 points out of first after one rotation.

Our second event was High Bar—another event that has been a strength for us all season. Although we had one miss, we still delivered the second-highest team score of the night with a 50.05. That rotation helped us regain some ground, but we remained 4.60 points out of first. The good news was that we climbed two spots in the standings and moved into fifth place, a clear sign that the momentum was beginning to shift in our favor.

Jack Gagamov delivered one of his best routines of the season in the anchor spot, igniting the team with a fearless set that featured three release moves and a stuck double-twisting double layout dismount. It was the kind of routine that energized the entire lineup and helped redirect the team back on the right path. His score of 13.20 garnered him a 2nd place finish and a place on the All-American podium.

In the third rotation, we moved to Floor Exercise while ASU went to Vault. We matched our season-high team score with a 53.60. At the time, we did not realize we had posted the top Floor score of the meet, and junior Ben Letvin delivered a nearly flawless routine and the judges awarded him a score of 14.30—the highest score of the season in all of GymACT! That routine earned Ben the National Title on Floor!!

Freshman Micah Winder also put in a championship-style performance that earned him All-American recognition with a 13.60, good enough for 4th place and a spot on the awards podium. Congrats to our two All-Americans on FX!

After our stellar performance on Floor, we moved up another two spots to 3rd place, one tenth behind the Washington Huskies and 6.10 points behind the Sun Devils of Arizona State. While the gap between us and ASU seemed insurmountable, the comeback path we were on became much clearer, and the team’s resilience and never-give-up attitude really started to shine in the arena. This was the moment the sleeping giant had finally awakened.

At the halfway point of the meet, we were not only clawing our way back to a spot on the awards podium, but we were starting to gain the necessary momentum to put much needed pressure on ASU.

Our next event was Pommel Horse, and we knew all year that this event would be one of the most important events to hit to stay close to the Sun Devils. The good news was we posted our second-highest PH score of the season with a 49.05 (our best was 49.60)! Jack Gagamov again led the way for the Gophers with our highest score on the team with a 12.70. Freshman Sean Francis came through as our leadoff man with the highest execution score of the entire team (8.5) and his second highest score of the season with a 12.10! Ben Letvin continued to add to his quest for the all-around title to secure an automatic berth to US Nationals given to the GymACT National All-Around Champion. His 12.25 on pommels was his second highest score of the season and it was also our second highest score of the meet for the Golden Gophers on horse.

Washington answered with a solid 52.25 on Vault and stayed in second place by 3.30 points. By then, ASU had built a commanding 9.45-point lead. Overtaking them with only two events left would have taken something extraordinary, but it was still possible. Iowa was quietly putting together their best meet of the year and after four events they were in a dead-even tie with us with identical scores of 201.80.

Still Rings came next, and after a shaky opening routine, the team responded immediately with four straight hit sets and three stuck dismounts. Joey Pennell (12.5), David Grossman (13.30), Owen Frank (13.35), and Ben Letvin (13.00) delivered the top Still Rings team score of the meet at 52.30, our highest score on rings all season by a point and a half. Jack Gagamov closed with a solid 11.55 to strengthen his All-Around effort. Both Owen and David finished with All-American honors by virtue of their 4th and 5th place routines, respectively. Ben was remarkably close to a second All American award with a 7th place finish on this event.

As each event came up, Minnesota gathered more steam on their way to the finish line. After Still Rings, the top three teams pulled away from the rest of the field, but we were still sitting in 3rd place behind ASU (262.50) and Washington in 2nd place (255.15). After five events, the Gophers had a team score of 254.10 – 8.4 points out of first place. Going into the last event – Vault – we knew it would take a bit of a miracle to catch ASU, but we were quite sure our Vault could move us into 2nd place against Washington’s High Bar.  

Sure enough, our Vault Team came through and posted the highest score of the meet with a 54.70, which moved us into 2nd place with a final score of 308.80 – our highest score of the season!! One of the reasons we posted the highest score of the meet on vault was because Ben Letvin posted the highest individual score of the meet on Vault. His score of 14.15 gave him his second National Title of the night AND his second straight National Title on Vault (he won last year as well). Congratulations to Ben on this fabulous accomplishment!!

Minnesota finished the evening with 7 stuck dismounts which brought our total for the season up to a whopping 101 stuck dismounts!!!!

In the final rotation, ASU posted 53.00 on Floor Exercise and finished the meet with a 315.50. Washington posted a 45.95 on High Bar that dropped them into 3rd place with a team total of 301.10 – their highest score of the season as well.

Ben Letvin put together his best All Around performance of the season, hitting 6 for 6 and bringing home two National Titles! His All-Around score of 78.65 was his best showing of the entire season by almost two full points. Arizona State’s Elliott Foster edged Ben for the title and the automatic berth to US Nationals with a score of 79.95.

The Final Team Rankings for the National Championships Division looked like this:

  1.    Arizona State University              315.50 – 2nd highest score of the season

  2.    Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics     308.80 – highest score of the season

  3.    University of Washington             301.10 – highest score of the season

  4.    Iowa GymACT                                 298.65 – highest score of the season

  5.    Indy-Hio Hyenas                            297.40 – highest score of the season

  6.    Temple University                         296.95 – highest score of the season

  7.    Bay Area Bandits                            296.80 – 3rd highest score of the season

  8.    New York Alliance                          273.15 – 5th highest score of the season

It was definitely a meet of mixed emotions as we finished the season as the second best team in the nation. However, the path to that finish was full of difficulties and the best part of this meet was how the team never gave up hope throughout the course of the evening.

Special thanks to all our parents and fans that cheered us on in the stands and from home while watching the live stream of the meet. Thanks also to USA Gymnastics for allowing us to hold the 2026 GymACT Nationals in conjunction with the Junior Developmental National Championships for the sixth straight year.

Minnesota picked up some serious hardware with seven All American citations:

All Americans:

• Ben Letvin – AA (2nd)

• Ben Letvin - FX (1st)

• Ben Letvin - V (1st)

• Micah Winder – FX (4th place)

• Owen Franks – SR (4th place)

• David Grossman – SR (5th place)

• Jack Gagamov – HB (2nd place)

For the third time in five years, head coach Mike Burns was named the GymACT Head Coach of the year, sharing the honor with first-year head coach Evan Shaw of Arizona State.

Senior Captain Owen Frank was a finalist for the prestigious N2 Award, also known as the Naseeruddin-Natalie Award. Presented annually to the top senior gymnast who best represents the values of GymACT, the award recognized Owen not only for his athletic achievements, but also for his academic success, leadership, and character. “Being nominated for this award is a huge honor,” said coach Burns. “It was great to see Owen recognized for all he’s done as a big part of this program over the past four years.”

Other finalists included Nate Davies of Temple, Zach Murray of Washington, Ethan Rio of New York Alliance, Gavin Robey of Rocky Mountain Mavericks, and Hunter Flechsig of Arizona State University.

The 2026 N2 Award recipient was Hunter Flechsig from ASU.

Thanks to all of the friends, family, alumni, and fans of the program, you have made this 2026 season so special!! We’re proud of what the Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics Team has accomplished this year and look forward to continuing to build this program up!