© John Cheng

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 16, 2016 – The USA’s John Orozco of The Bronx, N.Y./Team Hilton (U.S. Olympic Training Center), finished third in the all-around at the Aquece Rio Final Gymnastics Qualifier in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Held at the Rio Olympic Arena, the event is the final qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. The U.S. men earned a team berth to the Olympics based on their performances at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, Great Britian. Orozco earned an 88.640 in the all-around to win the bronze medal. Jake Dalton of Reno, Nev./Team Hilton (University of Oklahoma), is the second highest qualifier on the vault.

The U.S. men will be back in action for the apparatus finals on Monday. Competition begins at 12 p.m. ET. USA Gymnastics will have coverage of all the U.S. routines on YouTube. Live scoring is available at http://www.fig-gymnastics.com/event/index.html.

Orozco started on the parallel bars, where he earned his best score of the night a 15.466. He was clean through a Peach to front uprise double back to open and stuck his double pike dismount. In the second rotation, Orozco caught four difficult release moves on the horizontal bar, including a Cassina and a Liukin. He posted a 15.100. Orozco posted a 14.541 on the floor exercise, and kept his nerve after a long wait before pommel horse for an impressive 14.833.

“The biggest highlight for me was pommels,” Orozco said after the competition. “I’m glad I was able to go out there – first international meet overseas – hit my pommels set and get my mojo back on that event.”

With a stuck one-and-a-half twisting, double back dismount, Orozco earned a 14.800 on the still rings. He closed his competition with a front handspring, front layout full for a 13.900. He has advanced to the apparatus finals in pommel horse (eighth place); parallel bars (seventh place); and high bar (fourth place).

“I’m pretty happy with everything, happy that I was able to hit all six events, especially coming from Pac Rim last week,” Orozco added.

Dalton competed on floor, rings and vault, posting the second highest average score of the day on vault, a 14.933 average, after executing a clean Kasamatsu with two twists for a 15.266 and a front handspring Rudi for a 14.600. He scored 14.733 on the rings and 13.933 on the floor exercise.