Brody Malone capped off his comeback from a devastating knee injury to win his third US title. The former Stanford star and NCAA champ lead the rest of the field by over 2 points. In 2nd was Michigan star and 2023 NCAA AA/PB/HB Champ and 2023 World AA Bronze medalist Fred Richard of Michigan. In third, 0.7 behind, was 2024 NCAA Champ and Stanford star Khoi Young. Young won a silver on PH and VT at the 2023 World's. Rising to 4th with an excellent day was former OU star, NCAA Champ and Olympian Yul Modauer. He won the PB with the highest mark of the day. Malone was first on HB while Richard was 1st on FX. Former World Champion Stephen Nedoroscik, ex-PSU, won the PH. Another specialist, Alex Diab, a former Buckeye star, won R. In fifth AA for the day, with the same mark as Moldauer, was former Gopher standout and Olympian Shane Wiskus. However, his marks, when compared to the Top Four finishers, don't add to a potential team total.
The US men finished with a Bronze medal at last year's World Championships. With the addition of Malone and the improvements of the others, the US will look to put pressure on the Chinese and Japanese teams. The Olympic Trials will be critical in selecting the team. If the top 4 remain healthy and consistent, then just one spot remains. Based on this week's results, the Top four leave lineup gaps on PH, Rings, and High Bar. These three events were also the events where the US lagged the leaders at the last World Championships. Currently, the gymnast who adds the most to the top four is specialist Nedoroscik, but he competes only on PH. Not far away from that max potential but adding depth on more events is Paul Juda of Michigan, who finished 5th AA. If he can consistently hit FX, PH, VT and HB at the Trials, he will have a strong argument. R is another weak event but the gymnasts with the highest scores there don't quite add as many points overall, due to improvements made by the Top 4. Donnell Whittenburg, who as 7th AA is also in the mix, as is Asher Hong of Stanford, who finished 10th AA and has struggled this season. Whittenburg could also disrupt the Top 4 with a strong performance at Trials, and Juda is said to be holding back upgrades.
Link: Results
Nebraska (W) has hired Sam Scherwinski as an assistant. He has been an assistant at Lindenwood.
Ohio State (W) has hired Quest Hayden as an assistant. He has spent the last three seasons at Iowa. Previous to that he was at UNC and a volunteer assistant at PSU. He competed for PSU and was a US National Team member.
Link: Release
PSU assistant coach Lynnzee Brown, a former standout and NCAA champ at Brown, has been awarded a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Brown represents Haiti and received a universitality qualification from the Olympic Games Tripartie Commission. She will become the first Haitian gymnast to compete at the Olympics.
Link: PSU Release
Reese Baechle will transfer to NU for next season. She spent last season at Lindenwood, competing primarily on VT and FX, as well as UB.
Link: Release
Illinois will welcome Ashlyn Doyle and Marly Esteves for 2024-2025, according to a release. Both commits were covered previously.
Link: Illinois Release
Alabama has hired former Illinois assistant Ross Thompson as their new assistant. He was at Illinois for two years.
Link: Release
Former US and NCAA Champ and Olympian Brody Malone showed his progress in coming back from a knee injury suffered in March of 2023, by taking the lead on Day 1 of the US Championships. In 2nd was Michigan's Fred Richard. In 3rd was Donnell Whittenburg, who shared the same score with Stanford's Colt Walker. The rest of the top 10 are 1.25 points behind Whittenburg, after some big mistakes from some of the favorites. The Olympic team race is very much unsettled after Day 1 of the Championships.
Link: USAG Release
Arkansas has rehired Catelyn (nee Orel) Branson as an assistant. Branson has spent the last three seasons as Head Coach at Lindenwood.
Link: Release
Selena Harris, the former UCLA 12-time All-American and the 2024 Pac 12 AA, VT and UB champion, will transfer to UCLA for next season. Harris has career highs of 10 on VT and UB, 9.975 on BB and FX, and 39.9 in the AA. She entered the portal just before it closed after being dismissed from the UCLA program.
Link: Insta