© John Cheng

FRISCO, Texas, February 25, 2022 – University of Oklahoma senior Vitaliy Guimaraes scored the biggest win of his elite career Friday evening at the 2022 Winter Cup Presented by OZONE and TURN. With a winning performance of 83.950 points in the men’s all-around at Ford Center at The Star, Guimaraes headlined the first five athletes named to the U.S. National Team based on performances at Winter Cup. He was joined by some of the most promising young talent in the country and one seasoned veteran.

An NCAA All-American for the Sooners, Guimaraes (Arvada, Colo.) edged Stanford freshman and Senior Development Team member Khoi Young (Bowie, Md.) who finished in second with an 83.536. Asher Hong (Tomball, Texas/Cypress Academy of Gymnastics) took third with an 83.029 in his senior debut. The most decorated competitor in the 38-man field, 2020 Olympian and World bronze medalist Yul Moldauer (Wellington, Colo./5280 Gymnastics) was fourth with an 81.648, while Stanford sophomore and Senior Development Team member Colt Walker (Cedar Park, Texas) claimed the fifth and final automatic National Team spot with a 81.502. Additional athletes will be named to the team following Winter Cup.

Scores were highly impacted by a new bonus-point system implemented by USA Gymnastics’ Men’s Program to incentivize higher-difficulty skills within the new FIG Code of Points, which will govern scoring through the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Winter Cup is the first competition to utilize these bonuses.

Hong took a high-risk, high-reward approach, tallying bonus points on five of the six apparatus. He led the way on vault with a 16.680 (1.780 bonus points), the highest score given on any apparatus on the day, and topped the field on still rings with a 14.566 (.366 bonus). Moldauer leveraged the bonus system on three events – pommel horse, rings and parallel bars – while Young picked up points on pommel horse and vault. The latter’s 15.342 (.642 bonus) on pommel horse led all scorers. Guimaraes posted the high score on floor exercise (14.250). Curran Phillips (Naperville, Ill./Stanford) will enter Day 2 in the top spot on parallel bars (16.343, 1.193 bonus) and horizontal bar (13.757, .107 bonus). He did not compete in Friday’s all-around.

Individual event champions for the 2022 Winter Cup will be determined Sunday based on a two-day scoring total. Top performers from Saturday’s 2022 Elite Team Cup Presented by TURN will also earn the opportunity to compete on Day 2 alongside their senior division counterparts. The competition will stream live on FlipNow at 6:30 p.m. ET.

The top five all-around scorers are listed below.

  1. Vitaliy Guimaraes: all-around 83.950 (0 bonus), floor 14.250, pommel horse 14.350, rings (13.600), vault 14.450, parallel bars 13.900, high bar 13.400
  2. Khoi Young: all-around 83.536 (.886 bonus), floor 13.550, pommel horse 15.342 (.642), rings 12.550, vault 15.244 (.244), parallel bars 13.750, high bar 13.100
  3. Asher Hong: all-around 83.029 (2.829 bonus), floor 14.029 (.229), pommel horse 12.949 (.349), 14.566 (.366), vault 16.680 (1.780), parallel bars 14.355 (.105), high bar 10.450
  4. Yul Moldauer 81.648 (1.848 bonus), floor 13.400, pommel horse 13.789 (.489), rings 14.116 (.366), vault 13.400, parallel bars 15.543 (.993), high bar 11.400
  5. Colt Walker 81.502. (.702 bonus), floor 12.450, pommel horse 12.750, rings 13.250, vault 14.897 (.597), parallel bars 15.055 (.105), high bar 13.100