Horton Second at U.S. Championships

NORMAN, Okla. Oklahoma's Jonathan Horton finished second in the all-around competition at the 2006 Visa U.S. Championships at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., Friday night, claiming an automatic spot on the U.S. Senior National Team.

Horton, the 2006 NCAA all-around champion, won the floor exercise with a combined two-day score of 31.00. The Houston, Texas, native also score top-five finishes on the high bar (T3/29.400) and still rings (4/31.050) to finish just 1.55 points behind all-around champion Alexander Artemev of Team Chevron.

“Jonathan had a pretty good day,” OU head coach Mark Williams said. “He improved from Wednesday and had a legitimate shot at coming away with the all-around title.”

In addition to his runner-up finish in the competition, Horton was voted Sportsman of the Year for the Junior and Senior U.S. National Teams.

Williams was also named Coach of the Year for the second time. He last earned the honor in 1994.

USA Gymnastics | Commentary and Final Results

OU's Chris Brooks won the high bar title, edging Bryan Del Castillo by a 29.500 to 29.450 margin. Brooks also finished 10^th on the floor exercise to land in eighth place in the all-around standings.

Jacob Messina finished ninth in the all-around with a total of 171.650 and recorded a tie for eighth on the pommel horse (28.250).

“For Chris (Brooks) and Jake (Messina) to be in the top 10 is really good considering neither had been in this meet before as senior gymnasts,” Williams said. “I know they're both looking forward to improving and coming back next year.”

Several other Sooners scored top-10 event finishes including Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons, who tied for fifth on the parallel bars (29.750), and Jamie Henderson,who was 10^th on the pommel horse with a score of 28.000.

USA Gymnastics will announce the World Championship team in the next few days. A committee will select the roster based on the results of the this week's event.

NBC will air the finals of the Visa Championships at 12:30 p.m. CST on Sept. 10.

Commentary and event results can be found at www.usa-gymnastics.org.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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