“My last event, when you’re tired and everybody’s
watching … I love that kind of stuff.”—Brandon Wynn
he’s added a full-twisting Tkatchev since placing
fourth on the event at the 2009 worlds. And
despite coming up short on his inside-Endo late in
the set, he still earned 15.300.
Horton responded. Competing one apparatus
ahead of Leyva, he rocked his floor ( 11⁄2 twist to
double-twisting front mount, tucked double-double)
and swung through pommels without a hiccup,
knowing rings and vault would be a snap.
“Whatever funk I was in [at the beginning], I think I
came out of it,” Horton said. “So the meet kind of
turned around for me.”
Leyva led by .90 after hitting floor (layout double-
double, Manna press, double layout dismount), but
faced his lowest-scoring events in pommels and
rings. He would need help from Horton to win.
The veteran would not oblige. Coached by Tom
Meadows at Cypress Academy, Horton scored
16. 20 and 16.05 on rings and vault (
handspring-double front), respectively, as Leyva notched 14. 35
and 14.70. Though he didn’t win a single event
outright, Horton defeated his younger foe (who
won p-bars), 181.650-179.350.
“He did an incredible job tonight,” Horton said of
Leyva. “He pushed me, he made me nervous … I
can’t begin to give him enough respect.”
Though visibly disappointed, Leyva had nothing
but praise for Horton. “I’m extremely happy for
him,” he said. “We’re both like team players,
always having that friendly competition. Coming
into this meet he told me to put some pressure on
him. Now he said that I definitely did that.”
Leyva was actually closer to third-place Brandon
Wynn (178.700) of Ohio State than he was to
Horton. But the scores in Hartford were skewed
because of special rules in place that rewarded high
levels of difficulty and overall Start Value. Still,
Wynn earned his rank with hit routines, and his victory on rings, where the U.S. lacks depth, assured
his selection to the world team.
“It feels good,” Wynn said of maintaining the
third-place rank he had held after prelims. “I was a
little nervous in that in-between day. I tried not to
think about placing at all.”
Wynn closed his second day on p-bars, where he
was given a whopping 6. 8 D-score. “It was actual-
ly my hardest routine,” he said. “My last event,
when you’re tired and everybody’s watching … I
love that kind of stuff.”
Two points behind Wynn was 2010 Winter Cup
champion Chris Brooks, who was the top scorer on
high bar (Tkatchev to cross-grip; nice, late-twisting
layout double-double). He wasn’t even in the mix
until the end, thanks to a terrible pommel horse set
on day one ( 6. 45 E-score). But the former
Oklahoma Sooner climbed his way back near the
top.
“I was a little disappointed in horse, because
that’s what I’ve been trying to improve,” said
Brooks, whose lines would improve dramatically
TOP: Brandon Wynn (Ohio State) used
strong rings and a high degree of difficulty
to place third all-around.
RIGHT: Glen Ishino (Cal-Berkeley) placed
fifth all-around but was not selected for
the U.S. world team to Rotterdam.
