Four Buckeyes to Compete at Winter Cup – Ohio State Buckeyes
2/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Feb. 14, 2017
Columbus, Ohio – Four Buckeyes – current, former and future – will convene in Las Vegas this weekend for the Winter Cup Challenge. The competition will take place on Thursday and Saturday at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino.
Sean Melton and Alec Yoder are the two current Buckeyes and they will be joined by 2015 All-American Drew Moling and future Buckeye Max Andryushchenko.
Schedule of Events
Prelims | Thursday | Feb. 16
Andryushchenko – 4 p.m. ET
Melton, Yoder, Moling – 9:30 p.m. ET
Finals | Saturday | Feb. 18
10:15 p.m. ET
About the Winter Cup
Performances at the 2017 Winter Cup Challenge will help determine the 15 men who will comprise the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team through the 2017 P&G Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, Calif., Aug. 17-20. Following the two-day competition, the top four ranked all-around athletes will automatically qualify for the 2017 senior national team. The Men’s Program Committee will select up to eleven more gymnasts from the participants at the Winter Cup Challenge. The members of the 2016 Olympic team, plus the alternates, will automatically retain their spots on the national team provided they earn National Points on both days of competition.
The top 42 gymnasts, according to the all-around placements and Men’s Program Committee’s points ranking system, will advance to the final competition, along with the top three gymnasts on each apparatus. The all-around and individual event champions will be determined via a combined two-day score. For information on the points ranking system used for advancement to the final round, as well as the one for determining the national team, click here.
A Look Back at the 2016 Winter Cup
Melton was named to the U.S. Senior National Team following a third-place performance in the all-around. Melton posted a two-day score of 174.500, finishing behind three-time U.S. all-around champion Sam Mikulak (177.450) and 2015 NCAA all-around champion Akash Modi (175.300) of Stanford.
Yoder finished ninth overall with a two-day score of 170.700. He tied for sixth on rings with a combined total of 29.450 and was 14th on high bar with a 28.150 cumulative. Yoder has placed in the all-around Top 10 at Winter Cup in each of the past two seasons – an eighth-place performance in 2015 earned him a spot on the U.S. Senior National Team.
Moling, currently the director of operations, was 23rd overall with a combined all-around total of 162.750. Moling finished 16th on both rings (28.550) and high bar (27.850).
Buckeyes in the Rankings
Team
Ohio State enters the week ranked No. 3 in the College Gymnastics Association (CGA) National Rankings. OSU owns the No. 3 average all-around score in the nation so far this season, along with a No. 1 ranking on pommel horse with an average score of 69.575.
Individual (Top 10 in NCAA)
Sean Melton – No. 2 (floor), No 3 (parallel bars)
Jake Dastrup – No. 3, parallel bars
Alec Yoder – No. 4, pommel horse
Brandon Jacoby – No. 7, pommel horse
Jake Martin – No. 2 – all-around, No. 5 – high bar
Tristan Burke – No. 9, rings
Big Ten Accolades
Through five weeks of the season, Ohio State has had an athlete named B1G Gymnast of the Week in four of them. Jake Martin (twice), Sean Melton and Jake Dastrup have collected the four honors.
Martin – Jan. 16
Dastrup – Jan. 23
Martin – Feb. 6
Melton – Feb. 13
