Strong performances by both the men and women in the Budget Rent a Car Gymnastics Invitational at the Miami Arena proved that the U.S. will be a strong contender in the upcoming World Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 15-21.

The women’s team included Amanda Borden, Jaycie Phelps, Jennie Thompson, and Alecia Ingram. “The Budget Rent a Car Gymnastics Invitational was a great meet for Jaycie and me. We’ve been injured for a while and this was a great opportunity to let everyone know that we’re still out here,” stated Amanda. Although every routine performed by the women’s team was a hit, Steve Nunno gave a lot of the credit to the men’s team claiming, “Their strong base helped the team a tremendous amount due to the little mistakes the women made.”

The men’s team was comprised of John Roethlisberger, Kip Simons, Mihai Bagiu, Jarrod Hanks, Drew Durbin, and Jeff LaVallee. Despite Roethlisberger falling ill and scratching high bar, the men turned out great performances. Peter Kormann, the 1996 Men’s Olympic Team coach stated, “All of the men competed at least one new routine increasing the difficulty in preparation for the Olympic Games.” He commented on Bagiu’s high bar performance feeling confident that if he performs like he did tonight that he will medal at the Olympics.

Mark Sohn, pommel horse specialist, and Chris LaMorte, still rings specialist, performed after the competition in preparation for the World Championships. LaMorte was the NCAA rings champion in 1992 and 1993 and Sohn is only the second gymnast in NCAA history to win pommel horse event finals for four successive years at the NCAA Championships.

Competition results are as follows:
UB/BB/W FX /M FX/PH/SR/PB/HB/AA
29.199/28.812/28.599/27.500/28.275/28.450/28.000/28.500/227.335/USA
28.412/27.962/29.374/27.750/27.850/27.500/27.300/28.050/224.198/FRA

*Individual medals were not awarded*

Uneven Bars
Jaycie Phelps/9.825
Isabelle Severino/9.750
Amanda Borden/9.737
Jennie Thompson/9.637
Laetitia Begue/9.525
Elvire Teza/9.137

Beam
Amanda Borden/9.775
Jaycie Phelps/9.762
Laetitia Begue/9.725
Jennie Thompson/9.275
Isabelle Severino/9.237
Elvire Teza/9.000

Floor
Ludivine Furnon/9.837
Laetitia Begue/9.800
Elvire Teza/9.737
Jennie Thompson/9.662
Amanda Borden/9.512
Alecia Ingram/9.425

Floor
Thierry Aymes/9.450
Jeff LaVallee/9.400
John Roethlisberger/9.250
Jacky Loquin/9.100
Jarrod Hanks/8.850

Pommel Horse
Eric Poujade/9.750
Mihai Bagiu/9.650
Drew Durbin/9.625
Sebastien Tayac/9.250
John Roethlisberger/9.000
Sebastien Darrigade/8.850

Still Rings
Kip Simons/9.600
John Roethlisberger/9.500
Jarrod Hanks/9.350
Sebastien Tayac/9.300
Sebastien Darrigade/9.150
Jacky Loquin/9.050

Parallel Bars
John Roethlisberger/9.500
Eric Poujade/9.500
Thierry Aymes/9.400
Drew Durbin/9.350
Jeff LaVallee/9.150
Sebastien Darrigade/8.400

High Bar
Mihai Bagiu/9.700
Eric Poujade/9.450
Thierry Aymes/9.450
Kip Simons/9.450
Jeff LaVallee/9.350
Sebastien Tayac/9.150