Chris Brooks, the Oklahoma standout who was the surprise leader after night one at the 2010 Winter Cup, maintained his lead to win the all-around title there Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nev.
Brooks hit his pommel horse routine on night two and held off a late challenge from U.S. Champion Jonathan Horton, who finished second. Chris Cameron was third, followed by Danell Leyva and Stanford's Tim Gentry.
Despite sitting on the pommel horse during the first night of competition, Brooks led Horton by more than a point going into the final round. He cleaned up his pommel routine (13.0) and also tallied 15.8 on vault and a meet-high 15.5 on high bar.
Horton, who was clean on pommel horse on night one, scored 13.75 on the second night and added a 15.95 on vault. He received a 15.1 on floor exercise but only 13.85 on high bar, usually his best event.
Cameron, a junior at no. 1 ranked Michigan, improved his scores on every event from the first day of competition, gaining 0.65 on pommel horse alone. Leyva swallowed an 11.65 on pommel horse but scored well elsewhere, particularly on parallel bars (15.3), where he accumulated the highest two-day total. He finished off with a mega 16.05 on high bar.
Oklahoma junior Steven Legendre, sixth, had the highest score of the meet for his vault (16.3), which received a 9.7 execution score. He was also the highest scorer on floor exercise, the event he was a finalist on at the 2009 World Championships.
Oklahoma freshman Alex Naddour, seventh all-around, was the highest scoring gymnast on pommel horse. Ohio State's Brandon Wynn was the best on rings, and 2009 U.S. Junior champion John Orozco, eighth, was the only gymnast to score above 14 on all events.
The purpose of Winnter Cup, often referred to as "Winter Nationals," is to update the National Team roster. Based on this weekend's performances, the new U.S. team is Brooks, Kyle Bunthuwong, Cameron, Jake Dalton, Gentry, Wes Haagensen, Joseph Hagerty, Horton, Glen Ishino, Legendre, Leyva, Tim McNeill, Tyler Mizoguchi, Naddour, Paul Ruggeri, Kevin Tan and Brandon Wynn.
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