MINNEAPOLIS — On the morning of the men’s gymnastics NCAA Championship team finals, senior Ralph Rosso wasn’t in the vault lineup.

But by the time Michigan's vault rotation finished, he had posted one of the team's best scores.

The Michigan coaching staff originally put sophomore Chris Cameron in the vault lineup so he could compete for the all-around crown a couple weeks after finishing second at the Big Ten Championships. NCAA rules don’t allow gymnasts to exhibition events in the all-around competition, so Cameron's score would have to count towards Michigan's team point total.

But it wasn't such a straightforward decision. Rosso’s vault is worth over a point more than Cameron’s. And though Rosso’s handspring double front, one of the hardest vaults in gymnastics, had been inconsistent, he knew he could hit it on Friday night.

So the Michigan coaches decided to pull Cameron from the vault, thus preventing him from competing in the all-around.

"I just talked to the coaches about what would be best for the team," Rosso said. "Basically, if putting Chris in was best for the team, then put Chris in. Or if having a little more difficulty would be better for the team, then take a chance on me. Chris could have easily been All-American, national champion in the all-around, but he was willing to give that up for the team."

Through the thick, hot air of Minnesota’s Sports Pavilion on Friday night, Rosso pounded down the runway. He flipped a total of three times off the vault table, landing in a deep squat and taking one step back to steady himself.

"I was a little nervous, because I was pretty much putting myself out on the line," Rosso said. "Either I was going to eat my words or I was going to live up to them."

He lived up to them — his 15.70 score tied for Michigan’s second-highest of the night.

All through the competition, Rosso was a rock-solid foundation for his teammates. He led off the recently troublesome parallel bars with a hit routine — and the rest of the event squad followed with four hits in the next five sets.

"We talked about needing to get off to a good start (on parallel bars), and Ralph’s been that guy all year," Michigan assistant coach Scott Vetere said. "He doesn’t have a high start value but he’s clean. And he did just that."

Rosso was a spark on the rings and floor rotations as well, starting strings of Wolverine scores above 15 on both events.

For the senior, who was part of the team that finished eighth and out of the team finals in 2006, it was a fitting end to his career.

“To go from eighth to second, it was quite an amazing journey,” Rosso said. “Just everything that we’ve gone through, from the disappointment to our triumphant success, it’s been worth it all.”

Syque-ing out the competition: When freshman Syque Caesar tore his meniscus over a month ago, his season seemed to be over.

"Seemed" is the operative word in that sentence.

The freshman, who had been singled out by teammates earlier this season for his tremendous improvement, was one of the keys to Michigan’s second-place team finish. Though he started landing double-twisting vaults with consistency just before NCAAs, he was in the lineup on both vault and parallel bars for team finals.

He put his hand down during qualifiers the day before, but on Friday night, Caesar just took one step, earning a crucial 15.65 score.

Just one rotation later, he was part of the Wolverines’ dramatic turnaround on parallel bars, posting a solid 14.20.

Sweet seven: In the individual event finals on Saturday night, five Wolverines brought home seven All-American awards. The five All-Americans tie a program high, and Michigan had an All-American in every event but vault.

The sophomore duo of Cameron and Kelley collected four awards.

Cameron came in fourth on the floor exercise and sixth on the pommel horse, his dramatic flares on both events eliciting awed whistles and shouts.

Kelley became a regular in the parallel bars lineup just a month ago. On Saturday night, he finished third in the event and second on high bar, the event in which he was also an All-American last year.

“Those guys are awesome,” Vetere said. “That’s a one-two punch that’s going to be at Michigan for another two years.