Gymnast of the Week
Taylor Christopulos – Nebraska
Christopulos’ accomplishments feature an impressive all-around performance, good for the title in addition to setting a new personal best (83.25) for the captain. The second-ranked all-around competitor, Christopulos outscored Oklahoma’s Zach Nunez, who leads the nation with an 83.550 average, to claim the title. This marked his second-consecutive all-around title and brings his individual title total to 14 in his career, including seven this season. The junior also took home a share of the vault title, notching a 14.80. The Layton, Utah, native, played a critical role in Nebraska setting six team season-best event scores. On floor, he finished fourth overall (14.20). Christopulos anchored on pommel horse (13.00), and notched a personal-best on rings (13.55). Christopulos landed in fifth on parallel bars (13.80), just one-tenth below his personal-best score, and he finished fourth on high bar (13.90), just 0.05 under his personal-best mark.
Rookie and Co-Specialist of the Week
Ignacio Yockers – Oklahoma
See below for accomplishments.
Co-Specialist of the Week
Donte McKinney – Nebraska
McKinney earned his first National Co-Specialist of the Week honors of the season. The senior claimed the event titles for both high bar and a share of the vault title. McKinney matched his personal-best in each event, with a 14.25 on high bar, and an impressive 14.80 on vault, helping the squad notch a season-best team score on vault (72.80).
Gymnast of the Week
Jojo Buselmeier – Army
Sophomore Jojo Buselmeier captured the ring title at the All-Academy Championships over the weekend with a stuck dismount. Buselmeier hit all four of his events and posted the highest scores for Army West Point on floor exercise, rings, and parallel bars.
Specialist of the Week
Andrae Butler – Springfield
Butler returned to the lineup and hit for a career-best on the floor to finish second in the event with a 13.55 and later placed fourth on the vault with a 13.95.
Rookie of the Week
Matthew Petros – Navy
The freshman was a standout on Saturday night at the All-Academy Championship as he won the vault event. He nailed his vault that had a 4.8 difficulty score with a meet-high 9.55 execution score and a 0.1 stick bonus for a career-high 14.45 score.
Gymnast of the Week
Zach Nunez – Oklahoma
Oklahoma junior Zach Nunez (Cypress, TX) posted an 83.100 all-around to lead the Sooners to a win at No. 6 Nebraska (Feb. 17). His 14.550 vault score was a career-high, his 13.550 on high bar was a season-high, and his 14.600 on pommel horse was his second-straight 14.600 or better in the event. Needing a big score on parallel bars to overtake the Huskers in the final rotation, Nunez posted a 13.950 in the No. 2 spot. This is the second career MPSF weekly award for Nunez, each in the last three weeks.
Specialist of the Week
Ignacio Yockers – Oklahoma
Oklahoma freshman Ignacio Yockers (Tulsa, OK) once again set a national season-best on pommel horse, registering a 15.550 to surpass his previous nation-best mark by .450 points (15.100 last week) to help the Sooners get past No. 6 Nebraska (Feb. 17). Yockers led OU to a 72.350 on the pommel horse – the best team score in the country this season by nearly three points. This is the fourth career MPSF weekly award for Yockers, each in the last four weeks.
Freshman of the Week
Theodor Gadderud – California
California freshman Theodor Gadderud (Baerum, Norway) set personal records in three of four events against Springfield (Feb. 17), including a debut on vault which earned him second-place in the field (14.350), a winning high bar score that was .300 better than his old PR (13.100), and a floor improvement of 1.100 points which earned him an event win (13.650). This is the first career MPSF honor for Gadderud.
