Men's Gymnasts of the Week – Jan. 21, 2023

NCAA Gymnast of the Week
Fred Richard – Michigan
See below for accomplishments.

Co-NCAA Rookies of the Week
Fred Richard – Michigan
See below for accomplishments.

Asher Hong – Stanford
See below for accomplishments.

NCAA Specialist of the Week
Ian Skirkey – Illinois
Skirkey scored a 14.350 to earn the pommel horse title in Illinois’ win over Greenville on Saturday.

Gymnast of the Week
Kristian Grahovski – Ohio State

• Won the pommel horse title at the Navy Open on Jan. 21 in Annapolis, Md., with a personal-best score of 14.250 (fourth-best in the nation this year)
• Topped his previous high on the pommel horse by 1.25 points and recording the highest score by any Ohio State gymnast at the meet outside of the vault competition
• Helped the Buckeyes win the team title at the six-team competition with 405.350 points
• Earns his first career Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award

Freshman of the Week
Fred Richard – Michigan

• Claimed his first all-around title with a nation-leading score of 83.200 at the Rocky Mountain Open on Jan. 21 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Placed second on the high bar (14.750) as well as sixth on the parallel bars (14.100)
• Paced the Wolverines to a fourth-place finish at the meet
• Captures his first Big Ten Freshman of the Week award

Gymnast of the Week
Isaiah Drake – Navy
Drake placed top-10 on all three of the apparatus that he performed on during Saturday’s Navy Open as he ranked fourth on the vault with a 14.45, sixth on the high bar with a 13.2 and ninth on the rings with a 13.15. He was the first non-Big 10 gymnast in the standings for vault and rings.

Specialist of the Week
Ronan McQuillan – Navy
McQuillan set a career-high with a 13.9 score on the pommel horse at Saturday’s Navy Open. Performing the second toughest routine among the 31 entered gymnasts with a 5.3-point difficulty level, McQuillan earned an execution score of 8.6 for his total.

Rookie of the Week
Matthew Petros – Navy
Petros had a breakout week in competition at the Navy Open as he was the highest scoring ECAC freshman on the vault with a 14.25, that ranked eighth overall in the field, as well as the best freshman on the high bar with a 12.8, that was good for 12th overall. Additionally, he posted a 13.0 score on the p-bars that ranked 10th overall. All three scores are season-highs.

Gymnast of the Week
Taylor Burkhart – Stanford
Stanford sophomore Taylor Burkhart (Arvada, CO) collected an 82.050 all-around to place second and help the Cardinal to a winning 420.100 team title at the Rocky Mountain Open (Jan. 21). Burkhart recorded a pair of career-highs with a 14.850 on vault and 14.500 on high bar. He finished third on both high bar and still rings (14.000). This is the first career MPSF weekly award for Burkhart.

Specialist of the Week
Brandon Briones – Stanford
Stanford senior Brandon Briones (Gilbert, AZ) took second-place on the still rings (14.200) to help the Cardinal to a winning 420.100 team title at the Rocky Mountain Open (Jan. 21). He added a fourth-place high bar score of 14.350. This is the fourth career MPSF weekly award for Briones, first since 2020.

Freshman of the Week
Asher Hong – Stanford
Stanford freshman Asher Hong (Tomball, TX) easily won a pair of titles by one-half point or more, taking the parallel bars (15.250) and still rings (14.800) victories to help the Cardinal to a winning 420.100 team title at the Rocky Mountain Open (Jan. 21). Hong also shared second-place on the pommel horse (14.000). Hong repeats his weekly freshman award from his collegiate debut last week.