Cormier thrives on big stage
NOTEBOOK
It was an afternoon of promising performances for the New England trio in the junior men’s competition at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships yesterday.
After hitting his parallel bars routine, Matt Cormier enthusiastically saluted his cheering section. The Milton High junior was having the time of his life at his very first appearance at this meet.
“After each event, I heard such an uproar, and I thought, ‘Man, it’s good to be competing in the TD Garden,’ ” said Cormier.
After four events, Cormier was tied for fourth, but miscues on his last two events dropped him to 21st in the 15-16 age division. They were rookie mistakes — stumbling on two tumbling passes on floor exercise — that he hopes to rein in during tomorrow’s finals.
“I had a little too much power on the first pass and then over-rotated the second one a little too much,” said Cormier. “It was just a mess. I’m looking forward to being able to make that better (tomorrow).”
Where the extra power helped was on vault, where he ended up tied for third with a 14.1. His vault, a Kasamatsu 11⁄2, is only a few weeks old.
“I got it around today,” he said Cormier. “It was pretty clean, and I didn’t take too many steps.”
Nashua, N.H.’s Michael Fletcher also had a good day, landing in eighth in the 17-18 age division. His parallel bars routine was the division’s best, earning a 12.9, despite a rushed start to his routine.
Besides high bar, where he fell once, the rest of the day was solid, including a third place finish on pommel horse.
“I felt like I did pretty well,” said Fletcher. “Everything was going pretty smoothly up until I got to high bar. I fell once, but I have the second day to make it all back for the combined score and hopefully make the national team.”
Bedford’s Liam DohertyHerwitz was another parallel bars standout, earning a 12.5 and tying for fifth on the event among the 17-18-yearolds, but two frustrating high bar falls were his undoing. He sits in 14th place.
Sam sure am
Sam Mikulak is ready to reclaim his national title.
The four-time champion’s performance on the first night of competition in the senior men’s event showed that no injury will stop his pursuit of a fifth title. With all of his scores 13.65 or higher, he compiled a 85.15 to sit atop the leaderboard.
Even after removing pieces of his routine due to a recent back injury, Mikulak still stood out despite two falls. His 14.75 on floor exercise was especially indicative of his execution, given that it was the routine he changed the most.
Using phenomenal performances on floor (14.35) and parallel bars (14.1), Stanford standout Akash Modi earned 84.1 to sit in second place.
An Oklahoma gymnast challenged Mikulak the whole night, but not the one most anticipated. Allan Bower, a teammate of defending national champion Yul Moldauer, finished the night in third with a 83.85. Bower’s steady work saw him take the lead multiple times, but a 12.95 on high bar allowed Mikulak and Modi to slide in front of him.
Moldauer, the 2017 champion, had a rough evening, coming off the pommel horse and stumbling twice on bars, leaving him sixth with an overall score of 82.7.
Worcester’s Stephen Nedoroscik hit all of his circles on pommel horse with perfect form, earning a 15.1 to finish second on his lone event after the opening night.
Stepping forward
Two more Olympians stepped forward as victims of USA Gymnastics’ former team doctor Larry Nassar.
Kyla Ross, a 2012 Olympian, and 2016 Olympian Madison Kocian, now teammates on UCLA’s NCAA title winning squad, spoke to “CBS This Morning” and the Associated Press yesterday about the abuse they suffered and why they are coming forward now. Both told the AP that they are in the process of filing suit against Michigan State University, which employed Nassar and is alleged to have ignored several reports of abuse over a period of two decades.
Ross and Kocian both retired from elite competition in 2016.