Patrick Hoopes Wins Academy First NCAA Title on the Pommel Horse

COLUMBUS, Ohio – C2C Patrick Hoopes immortalized his name in Air Force Academy history as the first men's gymnast to win an individual NCAA national title after claiming gold on the pommel horse at the 2024 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships, Saturday evening, in Ohio State's Covelli Center. Hoopes was one-of-four Falcons to compete in the national finals.

Hoopes, the Academy record holder in the event, led the NCAA Championship field from wire to wire, scoring 15.266 on day one to pace the field before going on to win the event with a 15.300 in the finals competition. Hoopes concludes his 2024 campaign boasting the Academy record (15.400), and four 15.000+ marks and no showings less than 14.200.

Sophomore pommel specialist Sam Brown had a stellar championship performance in his second career finals appearance, finishing 13^th place with 14.066. Brown caps the season with five-straight 14.000+ performances on the pommel.

In his second NCAA Championship finals appearance, junior all-arounder Erich Upton finished 10^th place in the field (79.933). Upton's top showing was on the vault where he finished tied for 11^th place with a 14.600. Upton has scored nine-straight 14.000 marks on vault since February. His 13.900 on the p-bars was good for 19^th place.

Three-time NCAA Championship finals qualifier Oliver Zavel competed across three events, scoring his best mark on the p-bars where he finished in 14^th place (14.000).

Head coach Josh Loeser had this to say about the event:

"It's hard to express how good the guys did in the qualifier session and obviously what the allowed us to do in the finals. We only had two missed routines, outside of that, the team really killed it. Everyone showed up in their best form. Patrick Hoopes has always been right there with the best in the nation, and he worked at it every day to get to where he is and now that he's done it, we want more. We're going to keep pushing to get better everywhere and continue chasing titles as individuals but especially as a team. We were in a session that was more conducive to qualifying to team finals, and that's our goal; however, that session adds more challenges for individual qualifiers, and we knew that going into it."

"In the finals session, we didn't have any falls— that's the standard we aim for and all the guys did what they were supposed to. They were extremely competitive in a tough field. You look at a guy like Sam Brown, he did great routine— a better routine today than yesterday and that's saying something. As good as he was, he was just shy of breaking into the All-America status— not because he didn't do what he was supposed to do, but only because he was competing at the highest level. It was Sam's best routine in competition all year, and he's only a sophomore, we're optimistic about his future."

"Oliver killed it," Loeser continued. "I think he probably did the best PB set that he's done all year. Unfortunately, he didn't All-American but he's right there. He didn't get selected to the all-around finals but there's no doubt he was a stronger all-arounder than some of the guys that were in there today."

"Ultimately, they all did they all did great," Loeser said. "The thing that stands out the most to me is consistency in the team. Alot of that credit to goes to coach Sergey Resnick, that's why I brought him in, he came from Oklahoma and the way they train the way they competed, that's what I wanted to bring here. It's gotten to where we start off a little more consistently because we're wanting to. They get more consistent, more consistent, and hopefully try and hit that peak at NCAAs and it's been working for two years now."

Patrick Hoopes Wins Academy First NCAA Title on the Pommel Horse

Players Mentioned

Sam Brown

Patrick Hoopes

Erich Upton

Oliver Zavel

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