2022 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships Preview

ROSEMONT, Ill. – All five Big Ten Conference men’s gymnastics programs will compete at the 2022 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships, scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the University of Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.
 
Illinois, Nebraska and Penn State will participate in the first qualifying session on Friday (2 p.m. ET), while Michigan and Ohio State have been assigned to Friday’s second qualifying session (8 p.m. ET). The top three teams from each of the two sessions, along with the top three all-around finishers not on an advancing team and the top three event finishers not on an advancing team or all-around competitor, will advance to the championship finals on Saturday (7 p.m. ET).

Both of Friday’s qualifying sessions will be broadcast live and free of charge on Sooner Sports TV, while Saturday’s championship finals will be televised live on both WatchStadium (Stadium College Sports Central) and Sooner Sports TV. Links to all three broadcasts can be found at the top of this page.

All five Big Ten programs are ranked among the top seven nationally, according to Road To Nationals, led by No. 2 Michigan, No. 4 Nebraska and No. 5 Illinois. Ohio State is next at No. 6, followed by Penn State in seventh.

Defending NCAA pommel horse champion Ian Skirkey of Illinois enters this weekend’s NCAA Championships ranked No. 1 in the event. In addition, Nebraska’s Jake Bonnay is No. 2 nationally on the floor, while the Huskers’ Charlie Giles is second on the horse and Michigan’s Paul Juda (the two-time Big Ten Gymnast of the Year) is No. 2 on the high bar. Ohio State’s Trevor Cummings is third on the pommel horse, teammate Donovan Hewitt is No. 3 on the rings, with Giles also in the top-three nationally on the vault and Michigan’s Evgeny Siminiuc No. 3 on both the parallel bars and high bar. 

Current Big Ten programs have won 39 NCAA men’s gymnastics national championships (plus one each for Iowa, Michigan State and the University of Chicago). The conference is seeking its first NCAA title since winning championships four out of five years from 2010-14 (Michigan in 2010, 2013-14; Illinois in 2012).

Last year, four Big Ten schools advanced to the NCAA finals on Saturday, with Michigan leading the conference contingent with a third-place finish, followed (in order) by Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois. Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State all earned berths in the NCAA Championships but did not advance out of the qualifying (semifinal) sessions.

Big Ten gymnasts also took home three individual event titles in 2021. Along with Skirkey’s crown on the pommel horse, Minnesota’s Shane Wiskus prevailed on the parallel bars for the second year in a row and also earned the NCAA title on the rings.