© John Cheng

LOUISVILLE (February 24, 2023) – Olympian Yul Moldauer (Arvada, Colo./5280 Gymnastics) took the 2023 all-around Winter Cup title, saving his best for last on Day 1 of senior men’s competition Friday at Freedom Hall. The veteran led an otherwise youthful top five all-around finishers who automatically qualified for spots on the 2023 USA Gymnastics Senior Men’s National Team.

Moldauer’s 85.342 topped the Winter Cup field after posting his highest score in the last rotation, on parallel bars, with a 15.121. The 26-year-old, 2017 World floor exercise bronze medalist was joined on the podium by college freshmen standouts Fred Richard (Stoughton, Mass./University of Michigan) and Asher Hong (Tomball, Texas/Stanford University) with scores of 84.602 and 81.948, respectively. Ian Lasic-Ellis (Dover, Mass./Stanford University) took fourth with an 81.905 and Olympian Shane Wiskus (Spring Park, Minn./EVO Gymnastics) was fifth with an 81.200.

The bonus point scoring system developed by the USAG Men’s program to incentivize higher-difficulty skills was in effect in Louisville and put to good use. Hong had a total of 1.048 bonus points, including .705 on vault; Richards had .702 in total bonus and Moldauer .572.

Richards’ difficulty and execution paid off in making him the only top-three finisher to have the top score on any given apparatus – and he did it twice. The five-time 2022 Pan Am Junior Championships gold medalist posted a 14.483 on floor (0.183 bonus) and 14.962 (0.412 bonus) on high bar. 2021 World gold medalist Stephen Nedoroscik (Worcester, Mass./EVO Gymnastics) took the top spot on pommel horse with a 15.092 (0.442 bonus), while Curran Philipps (Naperville, Ill./Stanford University) scored 15.997 (.597 bonus) on parallel bars. Alex Diab (Glen Ellyn, Ill./EVO Gymnastics) led the way on rings with a 14.698 (0.448 bonus), and Kameron Nelson (Evans, Ga./Ohio State University) topped the vault with an average score of 14.802 (0.202 bonus).

The Senior men will compete again Sunday, when scores from both days of competition will be combined to determine apparatus champions.

More to come

Competition continues in Louisville tonight with the Nastia Liukin Cup at 7 p.m. ET, streamed live on YouTube.

Saturday features Winter Cup senior women’s competition, with live coverage on NBC and Peacock from 1-3 p.m. ET; all routines and the archived webcast also will be available on YouTube, where the Elite Team Cup streams live at 6 p.m. ET.