Brooks and Horton Finish at Tyson American Cup

March 7, 2010

Worcester, Mass -- One month after winning the Winter Cup National title in the all-around, Chris Brooks finished third at the 2010 Tyson American Cup on Saturday in Worcester, Mass. Brooks, a four-year letterwinner and current volunteer assistant at Oklahoma, finished behind another former Sooner, Jonathon Horton. A four-year letterwinner and 2008 Olympic silver medalist, Horton posted a 90.150 while Brooks tallied a 89.900.

Both Horton and Brooks finished ahead of reigning Tyson American Cup champion and 2008 Olympic horizontal bar bronze-medalist Fabian Hambuechen of Germany, who finished in fourth place. Maxim Devyatovsky won the competition with a 90.600.

Horton, who trains at Cypress Academy, began the competition on pommel horse where he executed a clean routine to score a 14.100. He then delivered a solid floor routine to earn a 15.150. He earned his highest event score, a 16.050, on his vault, a front handspring double front. Horton struggled on the parallel bars and netted a 13.700, which dropped him into second going into the final rotation. On the horizontal bar, Horton completed a series of release moves to score a 15.350.

“I felt good all day, even on parallel bars,” said Horton, who is the reigning U.S. all-around champion. “I killed the end of my routine after I came off. I just slipped, and I should have paid more attention and re-chalked after Devyatovsky. It's ironic I messed up on parallel bars because it is usually one of my best events.”

Brooks saved the best for last on his horizontal bar routine, which was loaded with difficulty to garner the highest score on the apparatus at 15.800. That score moved him into third place in the all-around. Brooks also had the highest scores of the evening on the floor exercise (15.550), parallel bars (15.350) and horizontal bar (15.800).

“It was awesome. A great learning experience,” said Brooks, who won the 2009 Winter Cup Challenge all-around. “I am proud of how, when I fell behind, I was able to pull it together. On pommel horse, my hand slipped, and then I struggled a little bit on rings. I thought to myself, 'There are three more events and let's get it back together.' And, I did, especially on parallel bars and high bar. It was awesome to compete with Jon and support each other. It was a great overall experience.”

On Sunday, the No. 1 Oklahoma men's gymnastics team is in Lincoln, Neb. to battle conference rival No. 2 Stanford and host team No. 9 Nebraska. The event will start at 2 p.m. in the Devaney Center at the University of Nebraska.

Men's Final Results
1. Maxim Devyatovsky, Russia, 90.600
2. Jonathan Horton, Houston, Texas, 90.150
3. Chris Brooks, Houston, Texas, 89.900
4. Fabian Hambuechen, Germany, 89.000
5. Daniel Keatings, Great Britain, 88.650
6. Koji Yamamuro, Japan, 86.850
7. Jorge Hugo Giraldo Lopez, Colombia, 86.200
8. Flavius Koczi, Romania, 85.200

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Brooks and Horton Finish at Tyson American Cup

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