HOUSTON – The USA Men’s and Women’s Teams lead the 1998 Junior Pan American Gymnastics Championships after day one of competition. Seventeen countries are competing in the biannual event. The women competed on vault and uneven bars today while the men competed on floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings.
On the men’s side, the USA gymnasts are in first through third place in the all-around competition with Paul Hamm’s (Waukesha, Wis.) score of 26.700, Zach Roberts’ (Encinitis, Calif.) 26.000 and Brett McClure’s (Mill Creek, Wash.) 25.400. On the women’s side, Morgan White (Fairfield, Ohio) is in first place with a score of 18.837, Kristin Thome (Sugar Land, Texas) is in fourth with an 18.587 and Janae Cox (Otisco, Ind.) is in fifth with an 18.449.
The team and all-around competition will conclude on Thursday, July 16. The women will compete on balance beam and floor exercise and the men will compete on vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.
Individual Event Finals will take place on Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18 at the Coleman Community Coliseum.
Rhythmic Gymnastics competition is taking place at Memorial City Athletic Center.

Team Scores after Day One

Men
1. USA, 78.100 (Paul Hamm, Jamey Houle, Brett McClure, Zach Roberts)
2. Brazil, 71.200
3. Canada, 70.550
4. Argentina, 70.100
5. Colombia, 68.300
6. Mexico, 67.350
6. Puerto Rico, 67.450
8. El Salvador, 54.400


Women

1. USA, 56.523 (Monique Chang, Janae Cox, Kristin Thome, Morgan White)
2. Argentina, 55.024
3. Brazil, 54.712
4. Canada, 53.724
5. Venezuela, 53.499
6. Chile, 50.462
7. Colombia, 49.498
8. Mexico, 48.311
9. Puerto Rico, 47.999
10. Guatemala, 45.436
11. Bermuda, 44.299
12. Uruguay, 42.111
13. El Salvador, 41.611