Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

MPSF Men's Gymnastics Annual Awards Announced

3/28/2024 11:00:31 AM

Photo: Asher Hong, Stanford (by: Stanford Athletics)
 
Stanford University sophomore Asher Hong (Tomball, TX) continues to perform at the highest level. Holding an all-around average of 85.283, Hong holds the nation’s highest season routine scores on still rings (15.150) and vault (15.200), and ranks first in the nation on rings with a 4-score average of 14.800 and 12th on floor with 13.950. Hong has won a team-leading 12 event titles this year--five on still rings, three all-around, two on vault, and one on both floor and parallel bars. He is a two-time CGA Gymnast of the Week (Jan. 17, Jan. 31) and three-time MPSF Gymnast of the Week (Jan. 16, Jan. 30, Mar. 19). Hong won four event titles to kick off the season at the Cal Benefit Cup, claiming the crowns on floor (14.400), still rings (14.600), parallel bars (14.450), and all-around (84.850). He won another all-around crown at the Stanford Open (84.950) as well as a still rings title with a career-best 15.150, before a road tri-meet with Cal, Nebraska, and Air Force and event titles on rings (14.800) and vault (14.750). Hong posted a career-high all-around of 86.050, as well as event titles on still rings (15.000) and vault (15.200) to lead Stanford over No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 8 Cal (Mar. 16). In addition to winning last year’s inaugural MPSF Freshman of the Year award, Hong repeats as gymnast of the year and is Stanford’s 13th such recipient, all in the last 21 years (Hong, 2023-24; Brody Malone, 2019-22; Akash Modi, 2014-17; Tim Gentry, 2011; Sho Nakamori, 2009; Dan Gill, 2004).
   
University of Oklahoma freshman Nico Hamilton (Grapevine, TX) has competed in seven meets this season and ranks sixth nationally on the floor exercise (14.083). He is the only freshman ranked in the national top-10 on floor. He was named CGA National Rookie of the Week on March 6 and MPSF Freshman of the Week twice (March 5 and March 12). Despite not competing in OU’s first two meets of the season, Hamilton debuted on parallel bars Jan. 28 at No. 5 Illinois, scoring a 13.800 in his first collegiate routine. He then posted a near-perfect 9.5 execution score on his 14.800 floor routine at No. 4 Michigan on March 2, becoming just the second gymnast nationally to reach that score in the event this year. He went on to score a 14.350 floor and 13.850 parallel bars against No. 9 Navy on March 9. He enters the postseason having scored 14 or better in three of his six floor routines. Hamilton is the first Sooner to be named MPSF Men’s Gymnastics Freshman of the Year.
  
University of Oklahoma sophomore Ignacio Yockers (Tulsa, OK) has competed in all nine meets this season and has won eight event titles, seven on pommel horse and one on parallel bars. He ranks third nationally on pommel horse with a four-score average of 14.950, while his 15.450 on Feb. 10 against No. 10 Cal is a 2024 NCAA-high across all events. He has scored 15-plus on pommel horse twice this season, tied for the most nationally, and 14.700 or better on horse six times which leads the nation. Yockers expanded his repertoire onto parallel bars this season, competing in the event six times with a four-score average of 13.650. He notched a career-high 13.900 on March 9 against No. 9 Navy, winning the event title, and has scored 13.500 or better on parallel bars five times. Yockers was named CGA National Specialist of the Week on Feb. 14, and was named MPSF Specialist of the Week four times this season (Jan. 23, Feb. 6, Feb. 13, Mar. 12). Yockers has now won each of the first two MPSF Men’s Gymnastics Specialist of the Year awards.
   
University of Oklahoma Head Coach Mark Williams has guided the Sooners to a No. 2 national ranking in the regular season with a 4-score average of 414.533. The Sooners accumulated an incredible 420.350 on January 20, a score which stands as the third-highest throughout the 2024 NCAA season. Oklahoma has reach 410 in six of its nine meets and the 415 threshold three times. OU enters the postseason ranked No. 1 in the nation on floor exercise, pommel horse, vault, and high bar, No. 3 on parallel bars, and No. 4 on still rings. The Sooners collected a conference-high of 18 of the 31 individual weekly MPSF awards this year. Ignacio Yockers scored 15.450 on Feb. 10 against No. 10 Cal, a 2024 NCAA-high across all events, en route to back-to-back MPSF Specialist of the Year honors. Emre Dodanli ranks No. 1 in the nation on the floor entering the postseason. Williams has led OU to 18 MPSF Championships out of 23 contested years, the most of any coach in the history of the conference. This is the 15th MPSF Coach of the Year honor for Williams, out of his 25 years at the helm of the program, and his first since 2018.