COLUMBUS — The Wolverines couldn’t complete the puzzle.
Heading into the NCAA National Championship, the No. 3 Michigan men’s gymnastics team (24-4 overall) looked to upset the four-time consecutive champion, Stanford (10-1). But while the Wolverines had the talent and the regular season scores to go toe-to-toe with the Cardinal, Michigan’s star gymnasts ultimately failed to perform to their capabilities and Stanford relegated Michigan to second place again with a score of 425.324 to 419.689.
The qualifying round on Friday went well for Michigan, only counting one fall. Two of its gymnasts earned career highs and several rotations hit their stride in ways they had not throughout the season. The Wolverines finished just 0.003 points behind Oklahoma, which claimed first in that qualifying round after the Wolverines took a one-point neutral deduction for competing out of order on the floor rotation. But aside from that mishap, Michigan felt good about its chances.
“Our goal for (Friday) was (to) go in there and make it business,” junior Logan McKeown said after Friday’s round. “No pressure. Have fun. This is kind of like our pre-meet for tomorrow, and so on that level, it was a success. Gonna go home. Good food, good sleep and replicate tomorrow.”
But the Wolverines could not replicate Friday’s success on Saturday. Michigan started strong, having received its wish to begin on pommel horse. While its rotation has struggled with consistency this season, it went smoothly aside from one fall from graduate student Paul Juda, who also counted a fall in the qualifying round. The fall wasn’t ultimately detrimental to the Wolverines as they earned their second-highest score of the season on the apparatus with 68.532 points.
Michigan’s success continued on the still rings. While not to the same level as the previous day, the Wolverines still did well, with sophomore Fred Richard earning a 14.400 to claim second place on the event. Michigan sat in fourth after two rotations with 138.597 points to the Cardinal’s 145.831, but the difference was largely due to Stanford beginning on vault, a very high scoring event. As the Wolverines moved on to vault, the win was well within reach. The puzzle pieces seemed to be fitting together.
Michigan needed a good performance on vault, though. The Wolverines’ pommel horse score, while good by their season standard, was low compared to those of the other schools in the meet. They needed a high score on vault to start chipping away at Stanford’s lead.
But Michigan was not able to put that performance together. After a strong start from junior David Wolma, the next three gymnasts nearly fell on their landings and Richard both stumbled and went out of bounds on his. An excellent vault from Juda prevented the rotation from being a disaster for the Wolverines and earned him second place on the event with a 15.133, but Michigan failed to take advantage of the opportunity to gain significant points on an event that so freely provides them.
The Wolverines weren’t completely out of it yet, though. On the parallel bars, despite a shaky routine from Richard, Michigan gained significant ground on Stanford, putting the Wolverines behind by just 0.568 points. And entering the high bar rotation — one of Michigan’s strongest events — it looked like the puzzle was coming back together.
It didn’t last.
Sophomore Robert Noll started off with a solid routine, and senior Evgeny Siminiuc and graduate student Crew Bold both had strong routines. But in the moment the Wolverines needed their stars the most, Juda and Richard both fell off the high bar, ending Michigan’s quest for a national championship.
“I let down my team with my efforts, and I didn’t perform at the standard that I need to perform at,” Juda said about his performance on Saturday. “And we came up short of our ultimate goal. … I was trusted to take on the role of the all around position with Fred and we both let the team down. I felt it a little bit more so as the team captain, because it almost felt directly in my control and (it’s) something that I’ll definitely be thinking about for a while, those mistakes.”
Juda finished the night strong on floor, claiming the floor title with a stellar routine that earned him a 14.800, and he and Richard took fourth and second in the all around, respectively. But all the individual medals in the world couldn’t make up for the feeling that the Wolverines had all the pieces they needed to win, but couldn’t finish the job.
“These individual awards are great,” Juda said. “I’m not going to ever say that saying ‘a national champion’ isn’t a great feeling. But it’s overwhelmingly difficult to say I’m happy with the weekend. … I would say still, for me, the team is everything. The team is the number one priority for me and everything really surrounds them.”
It was a disappointing end to a season that had so many highlights for Michigan, including setting a new program record against Penn State. But the Wolverines evidently hit their peak during that meet. Meanwhile, Stanford had not hit over 422.700 all season, but it hit 425.324 to win the National Championship. It peaked at the right time.
Michigan’s program record is now 425.500, greater than what the Cardinal won with. Had the Wolverines been able to perform that way on Saturday night, perhaps it would be a different story. This year, Michigan didn’t need to solve now five-time-consecutive-champion Stanford. All the Wolverines had to do was perform to their ceiling, but they fell short once again.
And so, the national championship puzzle will remain unsolved for another year for Michigan.