Van Wicklen leads Houston’s ‘new breed’
Stomach virus fails to keep him down; Mikulak wins 5th title
BOSTON — Other than a day off on the day he was born, Colin Van Wicklen has been around gymnastics for the balance of his 22 years and change.
Van Wicklen’s mother, Annie, is a longtime employee of Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in northwest Houston, and Van Wicklen said she brought him to the gym when he was two days old in the fall of 1995.
“She gave me a day to get acclimated, and then she said get your butt in the gym,” he said.
He began taking lessons at Cypress when he was 14 months old, started competing at 8 before graduating from Magnolia West and, except for a four-year stint at the University of Oklahoma, where he was a part of three NCAA championship teams, he never has left.
Now, with the retirement of Cypress alumni and Olympic team veterans Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks, Van Wicklen is next in line to continue a legacy of outstanding Houston male gymnasts dating back more than 20 years.
He took his first tentative steps along that path last year, winning two medals in event competition at the USA Gymnastics national championships, and picked up two more Saturday, finishing third on vault and high bar en route to an eighth-place all-around finish at this year’s nationals.
Two-time Olympian Sam Mikulak won his fifth all-around championship in a walk, leading OU gymnast and 2017 all-around champion Yul Moldauer by 4.75 points over two days. OU gymnast Allan Bower placed third.
Van Wicklen competed despite falling victim to a stomach virus the night before Thursday’s opening performances at the TD Garden. Saturday, he improved his scores on floor exercise, rings, vault and parallel bars before running out of gas on high bar, his final event.
“We work hard in the gym because there are days when you don’t feel good, and if you can do it in the gym, you can do it in a meet,” he said. “I think I made a statement today that I’m the best vaulter in the country.”
Van Wicklen has been able to land the fiendish Dragulescu vault, a handspring double front somersault with a half-turn named for the Romanian champion Marian Dragulescu, that has eluded some of his Houston predecessors, including former national champs Sean Townsend and Horton.
Van Wicklen hopes his vaulting success will help land him a spot on the men’s national team and on the training squad that will compete for five berths at the upcoming world championships.
“Nobody came to this meet more prepared,” said Cypress Academy coach Tom Meadows. “But life got in the way. He handled (his illness) with no complaints.”
Van Wicklen was joined in the senior men’s field by Cypress alumnus Tanner Justus, who competes for Oklahoma and finished 16th.
In the junior men 15-16 competition, John Chou of Cypress Academy ranked eighth overall while teammate Daniel Simmons was 15th. In the 17-18 division, former Cypress gymnast Evan Davis, now attending the University of Iowa, was ninth and Jack Freeman was 12th.
The Cypress junior squad also includes Lazarus Barnhill, who won the recent Pacific Rim junior championships in Colombia but missed nationals while he rehabilitates a back injury, and Pacific Rim runner-up Asher Holm, who at 14 is too young to compete at the national championships.
“It’s a new breed now, a group or young guys pushing to get better,” Meadows said. “We have juniors winning medals across the world already, and they’re getting ready to cross into the senior program.”
At the top of the leader board, meanwhile, Mikulak improved his opening day score by 2.6 points to become the first men’s gymnast since three-time Olympian Blaine Wilson to win five national allround titles.
“I really wanted this day to be proving myself kind of day,” he said “It’s a big weight off my chest. I have to say this is probably my favorite (national title) that I’ve won so far.”
Moldauer, who won the allaround last year when Mikulak was limited to two events while recovering from injuries, also had a comeback day.
He struggled Thursday with the impact of a previously diagnosed back injury but switched Saturday to the routines he used in NCAA competition and improved over his opening-day score by 2.75 points.