Three Buckeyes Earn Five All-American Honors at NCAA Championships
4/15/2023 11:04:08 PM | General, Men's Gymnastics
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The No. 7 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team (13-13, 1-3 B1G) had individual qualifiers compete on each event on Saturday at the NCAA Championships.
Kameron Nelson became the first Buckeye since Sean Melton in 2017 to earn All-American honors three times in a single NCAA Championship meet. Nelson finished third on floor (14.766), fifth on vault (14.800) and sixth in the all-around (81.665). Donovan Hewitt earned All-American honors by finishing third on rings (14.600). Caden Spencer finished fourth (14.066) on high bar to round out the Buckeyes’ All-Americans. Hewitt and Spencer were the first rings and high bar All-Americans for Ohio State since Melton in 2017, the most recent time that Ohio State earned five or more All-American awards. This is the first time for each of the three earning All-American honors.
Ohio State Results
- Floor: Kazuki Hayashi earned a 12.566 as the first competitor of the meet on floor. Caden Spencer’s floor routine totaled 13.933.
- Pommel horse: Parker Thackston made his NCAA Championships debut with an 11.700.
- Rings: Donovan Hewitt stuck his dismount for a personal-best score of 14.600. Kristian Grahovski earned a score of 13.333 in his NCAA Championships debut.
- Vault: Hewitt’s vault was good for 14.533.
- Parallel bars: Jacob Harmon earned a 13.766 in his NCAA Championships debut. Tyler Rockwood had an 11.733 in his lone event of the evening.
- High bar: Spencer made his NCAA Championship debut by leading off the high bar competition with a 14.066. Hayashi totaled 12.666 to wrap up his events.
- All-around: Nelson totaled a personal-best 81.665 in the all-around competition, including three event PR’s and four sticks. He began his all-around slate with a PR of 14.766 on floor, sticking his final pass. Nelson earned a 12.133 on pommel horse before sticking his rings dismount for a 13.600. He had his third stick of the evening on vault to tie his PR of 14.800 and followed with a 13.400 on parallel bars. Nelson wrapped up his competition with a PR of 12.966 and a stuck dismount on high bar.
What They Said
Head Coach Rustam Sharipov: “I want to say thank you to everybody who came to support us – all the parents, alumni, friends – all the big supporters of our program to the NCAA Championships. The team results don’t speak for who we are as a program. I know that we had some obstacles during the season, so we adjusted. I’m really proud of our young team because not too many people know that our team is young and we had five freshman compete. From those five freshmen, three competed in the finals. There aren’t that many freshmen out there doing what they did.
Overall, I’m really proud of all the accomplishments this young team achieved. We’ll lose only one routine from this championship for next year so the team will be much more experienced and we’re really excited about that. I’m really proud of the team and I cannot wait to see how that team can bring us to the next level.”
#GoBucks
