One winner was expected. The other, well, a bit precocious.
Stanford University and Sam Mikulak won the 2011 men's NCAA team and all-around titles, respectively, Friday night at Ohio State University. The 2009 NCAA Champion Cardinal gave a repeat performance from Super Six qualification, tallying 363.45, which lifted them above powerhouse Oklahoma (361.6) and Illinois (360.15).
Stanford put together the most complete performance, topping the other teams with the highest combined scores on vault and high bar. Oklahoma, the only school that looked like it might have a chance to beat the Cardinal, bettered Stanford on floor and even pommel horse but lost the advantage with weaker performances on parallel bars and high bar, an event where it had to count two scores in the 13s.
Cal-Berkeley (358.7), defending champion Michigan (356.2) and Penn State (355.7) finished fourth through sixth, but closed out their seasons earning bragging rights about being in the NCAA team final.
Mikulak, the reigning U.S. Junior champion, earned some serious bragging rights of his own. The 19-year-old Californian made the most of his first NCAA Championships, taking the all-around crown (90.75) over Illinois's Tyler Mizoguchi (90.15) and Oklahoma's Alex Naddour (89.75).
Oklahoma's Steven Legendre and Jake Dalton, expected to fight amongst themselves for the title, finished fourth (89.7) and 11th, respectively (87.2) after both had mistakes on pommel horse. Dalton bombed with a 9.85, while Legendre scored 13.45, sixth of the seven Oklahoma competitors to do the event. 2010 World team member Brandon Wynn rounded out the top five.
A handful of near-specialists topped the standings on each event. Legendre, whose floor score was also highest during the Super Six qualifying round, recorded the meet-high on the event Friday as well (16.2), just ahead of Dalton, who tallied 16.8. Also in the hunt for the floor title will be Stanford sophomore Eddie Penev, who scored 15.95.
Illinois's pommel horse star Daniel Ribeiro was once again the gymnast to beat on an event detested by many a U.S. all-arounder, postingf 15.5, 0.4 ahead of his nearest challenger, Cal's Glen Ishino, on the event.
Mikulak's triple-twisting Tsukahara vault landed him in a tie for first on the event with Stanford's Alex Buscaglia, who performs a complicated roundoff, half on, front double full off. Both men scored 16.35. Buscaglia also tied Michigan's Ian Makowske for the best score on high bar (15.4).
On rings, Ohio State's Brandon Wynn and Stanford's Tim Gentry, who have fought it out for supremacy on that event for the past couple of years, again went 1-2. Wynn scored 16.1, Gentry 15.8. Mizoguchi was best on parallel bars, scoring 15.6 ahead of teammate Craig Padera, Jr. (15.3).
Defending NCAA Champion Chris Cameron of Michigan was 15th this year after a 12.65 on pommel horse, normally his best event.
Mikulak, an exciting competitor who wasn't quite seasoned enough to make the U.S. senior national team in 2010, should get a big boost from this result. Cameron used his NCAA all-around victory as a springboard to launch a successful bid to make the World team last year. One has to wonder, in the year before the Olympic Games, could Mikulak do the same thing?
Complete results: The final tallies from the men's Super Six finals are available here.
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