Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

MPSF Men's Gymnastics Annual Awards Announced

4/3/2025 9:00:42 AM

Stanford senior Taylor Burkhart (Arvada, CO) is the top-ranked all-arounder in the country with an 80.183 4-Score average and ranks in the top-five on the floor exercise and vault, 15^th on pommel horse, and is 17th on still rings. A four-time event winner this season, Burkhart has earned the CGA National Gymnast of the Week award three times this season, along with three MPSF Gymnast of the Week honors. He owns nation-leading 83.900 all-around (Jan. 25) and 14.750 vault (Jan. 18) scores this year, resulting in his first two weekly MPSF honors. Additionally, Burkhart earned another selection on the U.S. Senior National Team after a fourth-place all-around effort at the 2025 Winter Cup, leading to his conference-best third MPSF weekly award. He is a Nissen-Emery Award finalist. Burkhart represents Stanford’s seventh-straight MPSF Gymnast of the Year award, 11th in the last 12 years, and 14th all-time (Asher Hong, 2023-24; Brody Malone, 2019-22; Akash Modi, 2014-17; Tim Gentry, 2011; Sho Nakamori, 2009; Dan Gill, 2004).
   
Oklahoma freshman Francisco Velez Belendez (San Juan, Puerto Rico) ranks fifth nationally on still rings with his 4-score average of 13.917. He has competed in seven meets this season and registered five scores of 13.800 or higher on rings. He is the only freshman in the country with as many still rings scores of 13.800 or better. Velez Belendez was named CGA Rookie of the Week on Feb. 12 after notching a career-high 14.350 against No. 2 Stanford and Greenville, which was also the third-highest rings score nationally this year. He was named MPSF Freshman of the Week three times to share the conference-high (Jan. 21, Feb. 19 and March 4). Velez Belendez is the second Sooner to be named MPSF Men’s Gymnastics Freshman of the Year, and a repeat from 2024 (Nico Hamilton).
 
Air Force senior Patrick Hoopes (Levi, UT) is in the midst of a stellar season. He became the first NCAA Gymnast to break 15 points in any event under the new scoring system during a 15.150-point performance in the win against Cal on February 8 – an NCAA-leading mark he matched during the team finals of the USAG Collegiate Nationals on March 28. The current national leader with a four-score mark of 14.950, Hoopes captured his third-straight pommel horse title at the USAG Collegiate Nationals. A silver medalist at Winter Cup, Hoopes returned to the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team. Hoopes, who became the first Falcon in 14 years to win the pommel horse at the Rocky Mountain Open, has been named the MPSF Specialist of the Week four times and the CGA Specialist of the Week twice this year. He is a Nissen-Emery Award finalist. Hoopes represents the first-ever Air Force Gymnast to earn an annual MPSF award.
 
Oklahoma 26th-year Head Coach Mark Williams has guided the Sooners to a remarkable 2025 season, ranking No. 1 through the regular season with a national-best 4-score average of 327.183. OU also ranks first in the NCAA on floor (55.267), No. 2 on pommel horse (54.667), still rings (55.350), vault (56.300), and high bar (54.667), and No. 5 on parallel bars (53.000). OU was one of three teams to break 330 this year under the new scoring system, accumulating 330.700 vs. Illinois on Jan. 25, while also posting a national-best on high bar in that meet of 55.900. The Sooners were recognized 11 times in the MPSF weekly awards this year, topped by three honors for freshman Francisco Velez Belendez. Williams earns his 16th MPSF Coach of the Year honor out of his 26 years at the helm of the program.