1992 Olympian Jair Lynch won the all-around title at the men’s Winter Cup Gymnastics Challenge, held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., February 2-3.

“I went four for six routines tonight,” said Lynch. “I missed pommel horse and high bar. I was disappointed with high bar. The bar was very slow and I knew I wasn’t going to make it. I think my pommel horse miss was inexcusable. I’ve been hitting this routine all the time.”

The Winter Cup Challenge is the first step in the qualification process to the 1996 Olympic Games, is the trials competition for the 1996 World Championships, and is the re-ranking event for the USA Men’s National Teams.

The top 14 in the all-around from the compulsory and optional round of competition make up Team ’96. Using optional scores only, the top seven (ages 18 and under) and the top five (ages 19 and over) make up Team 2000.

The World Championships team was also selected at the Winter Cup Challenge based on their optional only performances. The team consists of Garry Denk (Northbook, Ill.), Chainey Umphrey Albuquerque, N.M.), and Steve McCain (Houston, Texas), who had the highest optional all-around scores, as well as pommel horse champion Mark Sohn (Arlington Heights, Ill.), rings champion Chris LaMorte (Albuquerque, N.M.) and high bar champion Bill Roth (Mohegan Lake, N.Y.). The head coach of the team is Ron Brant from the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the assistant coach is Art Shurlock from UCLA. The individual event World Championships are April 15-21 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Below are the rankings from the Winter Cup Challenge.

Men’s Team ’96 Final Ranking (Compulsories weighted 60% of the total score, optionals weighted 40% of the total score)
# Name/School/Club/Score
1. Jair Lynch/Stanford/110.52
2. Garry Denk/USOTC/110.48
3. John Macready/USOTC/110.22
4. Steve McCain/UCLA/110.10
5. Chainey Umphrey/UCLA/109.74
6. Mihai Bagiu/Gold Cup/109.65
7. Josh Stein/Stanford/109.34
8. Bill Roth/Temple University/109.04
9. Dennis Harrison/USOTC/108.54
10. Drew Durbin/Ohio State/108.26
11. Jeff Lavallee/Daggett Gold Medal Gym./107.48
12. Lou Datillio/USOTC/106.86
13. Jarrod Hanks/Univ. of Oklahoma/106.66
14. David St. Pierre/Broadway Gymnastics/106.40

Men’s Team 2000 Final Ranking (18 and under)
(Team 2000 competes optionals only)
1. Mike Dutka/Macey’s Gymnastics/51.55
2. Tim Elsner/Ohio State/51.40
3. Todd Strada/Atlanta School of Gym./51.05
4. Mike Canales/Ohio State/51.00
5. Jason Katsampes/Parkettes/50.00
6. Scott Hrnack/Syracuse/49.95
7. Jason Gatson/Arizona Flairs/49.60
7. Tim Lashua/Penn State/49.60

Men’s Team 2000 Final Ranking (19 and over)
(Team 200 competes optionals only)
1. Jim Koziol/Univ. of Nebraska/53.45
2. Josh Birckelbaw/Univ. of Calif.-Berkeley/53.35
2. Andrew Mason/Univ. of Calif. – Berkeley/53.35
4. Aaron Cotter/Univ. of Iowa/52.80
5. Tyler Vogt/Univ. of Iowa/52.30