GYMNASTICS : Nebraska’s Kirksey Wins All-Around at UCLA Meet

From the beginning of the meet it was clear that Patrick Kirksey of Nebraska could still be considered the top college gymnast in the country.

The defending all-around NCAA champion was the best all-around gymnast again Saturday night when he led his team to victory in the UCLA Men’s Gymnastic Invitational at Pauley Pavilion.

Nebraska, the top-ranked team in the country, scored 283.075 points to easily beat UCLA. The Bruins, however, provided the only intrigue of the night when they edged Minnesota by .55 in the final event to finish second with a score of 279.2

Minnesota finished at 278.8, followed by New Mexico at 273.075 and Arizona State at 271.5. Illinois, the defending NCAA champion, finished last at 269.95.

“Next to the NCAA championship, this is our biggest meet of the year,” said Kirksey, who is also the defending all-around champion of this meet. “There is so much competition in this meet that I can’t worry about it or I would go crazy. I’ve got three people on my own team who are excellent and then at UCLA there’s Chris Waller, (Chainey) Umphrey and Scott Keswick. Minnesota has John Roethlisberger. It’s a great meet.”

Minnesota stayed close to Nebraska for the first three rotations. But the Cornhuskers pulled three points ahead of the Gophers with a strong team performance in the floor exercise in their fourth event.

The Bruins, trailing Minnesota by 1.3 points after the fourth rotation, pulled to .15 of the Gophers with the top team score of on the parallel bars.

Falls by Waller and Keswick in the high bar, the Bruins’ final event, appeared costly, but the Gophers scored low enough on the parallel bars to put UCLA ahead.

“This is only our second meet of the year so I feel good about our performance,” said Keswick, who won the parallel bar event with a 9.85.

UCLA was not ranked because it had not competed in two meets until Saturday.

Umphrey, a member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, seemed to be the biggest crowd pleaser. His explosive performance on the rings, which he won with a score of 9.8, and on the high bar brought the most applause from the crowd of 2,500.

The top score of the meet was by Licurgo Diaz-Sandi, when his near-perfect floor exercise brought the Arizona State gymnast a 9.9.