“Day one was as close to a disaster as you
could possibly get; I hit one for six.” —Steven Legendre
Sean Melton (Orlando Metro) won the junior 14-15 title over Adrian de los Angeles (SCATS) and teammate Jake Martin (right).
JUNIOR COMPETITION
IT took awhile, but Same Mikulak finally topped the juniors after placing second three years in a row. Coached by Grigor Chalikyan at SCATS-Huntington Beach, Mikulak distanced himself from
the 16-18 field throughout his six-for-six performance. He won pommel horse ( 14. 15), parallel bars
( 14.65) and high bar ( 14. 10), was second on floor
(stuck full-in dismount) and vault, and third on rings.
His 86.50 was more than 5.0 ahead of runner-up
Jacoby Rubin of Buffalo Grove. Wyatt Aycock
(Orlando Metro), sixth a year ago, placed third.
Mikulak, who will be a freshman at current
NCAA champion Michigan, was actually in the 14-
15 age group in 2009. Born Oct. 13, 1992, he
said his coach thought it best that he stay in the juniors again this year, even though John Orozco, who
defeated Mikulak since 2007, entered the seniors.
Mikulak said it “felt good to go out with a bang”
and looked forward to a fresh start in Ann Arbor.
Jordan Valdez (Champion) placed fourth and tied
for first on p-bars, and Cale Robinson (Premier) was
fifth, winning floor ( 14.60) and vault ( 15.70). Wasef
Burbar (Buffalo Grove) edged Matthew Felleman
(New England) for sixth, and Trevor Howard
(Hocking Valley), who won rings ( 13.85), finished
eighth.
In the 14-15 division, Orlando Metro teammates
Sean Melton and Jake Martin, who are coached by
Cuban native Casimiro Suarez, had a chance to go
1-2 until the latter couldn’t control a Diamidov on
parallel bars in the final rotation. Melton had
already hit and finished with a winning 83.40, but
Martin dropped off the apparatus and down to third
(80.65), the rank he earned a year ago. Adrian de
los Angeles, a teammate of Mikulak’s, grabbed second (81.05), having placed eighth in 2009.
Melton, who missed the 2009 championships
with an injured left shoulder, was consistent all day,
winning floor ( 14.50) and pommels ( 13.80). He
was third on rings, fifth on p-bars and high bar and
seventh on vault. While he used to score 10s on p-
bars years ago, Melton says he needs some work on
high bar. “I’m not too big of a fan of it,” he said
with smile.
