Men's Gymnasts of the Week – Jan. 13-14, 2023

NCAA Gymnast of the Week
Riley Loos – Stanford
See below for accomplishments.

NCAA Rookie of the Week
Asher Hong – Stanford
See below for accomplishments.

NCAA Co-Specialists of the Week
Maddox Pabellon – Army
See below for accomplishments.

Connor McCool – Illinois
McCool won the floor exercise title at the Windy City Invitational with a 14.300.

Gymnast of the Week
Matt Cormier – Penn State

• Earned the all-around title, as well as top honors on the floor, at the West Point Open Jan. 13-14 in West Point, N.Y.
• Posted an all-around score of 81.950 and a mark of 14.650 on the floor
• Helped the Nittany Lions to the team title at the meet, scoring 407.600 points
• Earns his second career Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award

Freshman of the Week
Ian Raubal – Penn State

• Captured three individual event titles last weekend at the West Point Open in West Point, N.Y.
• During the team competition on Jan. 13, won the still rings with a score of 14.500
• Came back during the individual competition on Jan. 14, winning the parallel bars and high bar with matching scores of 13.900
• Captures his first Big Ten Freshman of the Week award

Gymnast of the Week
Ryan Barela – Greenville
Ryan Barela placed second in the all-around at the Windy City Invitational for NCAA Athletes. His scores included a 14.05 vault, a 13.0 floor, a 12.95 parallel bars, and a 13.35 rings score.

Co-Specialists of the Week
Maddox Pabellon – Army
Freshman Maddox Pabellon followed up his strong start to the season with one of the most memorable moments in West Point Open history. Pabellon won the pommel horse title with a career-high 14.35 against gymnastics from #2 Penn State, #4 Nebraska, #9 Navy, and #9 Springfield. He is the sixth Black Knight to be crowned a champion on the event and the first since 2014. Pabellon’s performance has him ranked second in the country on pommel horse and the top-ranked ECAC gymnast in the country. Pabellon also posted a career and season-best 14.1 on vault.

Connor Van Loo – Navy
Van Loo competed for the Mids on the floor exercise and vault events in both the team and individual final portions of the two-day West Point Open. On Friday, Van Loo scored 14.0 points to rank fourth overall on the floor exercise before hitting his vault with a 14.25 score to tie for eighth overall. In the event finals on Saturday, he won the floor with a 14.25-point effort before coming in third on the vault with a 14.65. Van Loo’s vault in the event finals earned the highest execution score in the field with a 9.75 grade.

Rookie of the Week
Sam Kaplan – Springfield
Kaplan took fifth on parallel bars at the West Point Open after qualifying for the finals with a 13.500. He competed in four events in the team portion of the event, helping the Pride to a team score of 388.1500, its highest season-opening score since 2017.

Gymnast of the Week
Riley Loos – Stanford
Stanford senior Riley Loos (El Dorado Hills, CA) captured the all-around title in the season opener at California (Jan. 14) with an 82.550 to help the Cardinal to a winning 410.500 total. Loos also won the still rings title with a 14.850– topping his previous career-high of 14.600 to win the 2022 NCAA title. With Loos leading the way, Stanford totaled 71.750 on rings to open the season. He added a 14.200 on vault, second-place-tying 14.000 on floor, and 12.900 on pommel horse. This is the fourth career MPSF weekly award for Loos.

Specialist of the Week
Noah Sano – California
California senior Noah Sano (Northridge, CA) posted massive personal-bests in all three of his events in the season opener against defending NCAA Champion Stanford (Jan. 14), winning the overall pommel horse title with his 13.950 and leading the team on parallel bars with another 13.950. Sano also scored a 13.300 on still rings. This is Sano’s first career MPSF weekly award.

Freshman of the Week
Asher Hong – Stanford
Stanford freshman Asher Hong (Tomball, TX) won a pair of events in his collegiate debut at California (Jan. 14), claiming the parallel bars crown with a national-best 14.550 and finishing atop the podium on floor at 14.350. Hong also hit for a 14.800 on rings and a 14.450 on vault to place second in both events.