The third time wasn’t a charm for the Michigan men’s gymnastics team.
Friday night, the second-ranked Wolverines aimed for a three-peat as national champions, but came up short, landing in fourth place out of six teams. Michigan’s final tally was 437.650, behind eventual champion Oklahoma, Penn State and Stanford.
“Obviously I’m disappointed because we didn’t perform up to our capabilities,” said Michigan coach Kurt Golder. “I don’t think we were a good enough team to get past Oklahoma. We would have had to be perfect and they would have had to falter in order to get by them.”
Keeping in stride with their last two titles, the Wolverines went with the same event order that had worked so well in the past two years. Their first rotation of the night was the pommel horse, where senior Adrian de los Angeles led the way with a 15.00, followed closely behind by junior Nolan Novak, who scored 14.85. Despite these strong efforts, Michigan couldn’t keep up with its competition and found itself sixth after its first event. That deficit proved to be too much, as Michigan never rose higher than fourth on the night.
The Wolverines made up for lost points on the still rings. With big scores from seniors Hub Humphrey and Colin Mahar, Michigan tallied its highest rings score of the season with a total of 73.90. However, the Wolverines were still in a disappointing fifth place, and would stay there during their best event of the season — the vault. Despite high scores from senior Paul Rizkalla and sophomore Anthony Stefanelli, their points were not able to make up for a pair of missed landings.
Michigan moved up to fourth place after a strong parallel bars performance. Freshman Dmitri Belanovski made a major contribution to the Wolverines’ fourth rotation with a 14.85.
“It’s no surprise,” Golder said. “Dmitri is always a steady guy in practice. I’m so impressed with his consistency, and he’s only a freshman.”
Michigan ended its night with an exclamation point on floor. Senior Stacey Ervin and Rizkalla led the way with 15.50 and 15.30, respectively. Both exercises played a key role in earning a season-high total of 75.60 in the event. Unfortunately for Michigan, the scores weren’t enough to push the Wolverines out of fourth place.
Four gymnasts represented Michigan the following day in the individual event finals. Novak and de los Angeles competed on pommel horse, and Novak, with a stunning 14.77, finished second in the event.
Belanovski wowed again on the high bar, where he tied for third with 15.025, just 0.1 points away from first. Also tying for third, Ervin earned 15.575 on floor. He, Belanovski and Novak all earned All-American honors.
“I find it interesting,” Golder said. “(Ervin and Belanovski) have been roommates on the road all season and they both end up tying for third in their events. It’s funny how that worked out.”
A pure coincidence between a freshman and senior ended the disappointing weekend on a more positive note. And as Ervin steps down as a team leader, Belanovski steps in as a new star of the team and, possibly, a sign of things to come.