The U.S. Senior Men trailed Romania and China the first five rounds of competition, but came back strong on the last event, high bar, to win the team title at the 1997 International Team Championships. The International Team Championships is a triangular gymnastics competition, taking place in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 21, at the Riverfront Coliseum.

The U.S. Senior Men’s Team includes: Garry Denk (Northbrook, Ill.), Jason Gatson (Mesa, Calif.), John Macready (Los Angeles, Calif.), Steve McCain (Houston, Texas), John Roethlisberger (Minneapolis, Minn.) and Jay Thornton (Augusta, Ga.).
Head Coach Ron Brant said, “They made a commitment last night to go through this competition as a team. It’s coming. We’ll be on the winner stand at a World Championships or Olympic Games soon.”
Regarding what the U.S. Team learned from this competition, Brant said, “Momentum. An attitude. We can compete and we can win.”
Roethlisberger commented on the team format saying, “There’s no feeling like winning as a team. I’ve won numerous individual titles but there’s nothing sweeter than winning with a team. It’s awesome.”
The Romanian Men’s Senior Team includes: Adrian Ianculescu, Cristian Leric, Florentin Pescaru, Dorin Petcu, Nistor Sandro, and Marius Urzica.
The China Senior Men’s Team includes: Li Bo, Cheng Liang, Zheng Lihiu, Zhao Shen, Wang Xun, and Chen Zhenyu.
The Junior Women’s Competition is Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and the Senior Women’s Competition is 6:00 p.m. Saturday night.

International Team Championships Results

SENIOR MEN

#, Country, FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB, Total
1., USA, 35.800, 35.200, 35.700, 37.150, 34.550, 36.050, 214.45
2, Romania, 33.800, 36.500, 36.600, 38.000, 34.550, 34.600, 214.05
3., China, 33.950, 34.900, 36.250, 37.250, 36.050, 35.100, 213.50

Key: FX=floor exercise, PH=pommel horse, SR=still rings, VT=vault, PB=parallel bars, HB=high bar.