Men’s Gymnastics Concludes MPSF Championships with 395.450

NORMAN, Okla. – Air Force finished fourth in the field at the 31^st Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, scoring a 395.450 highlighted by a pair of fourth place individual finishes. Reigning MPSF Champions and 2023 NCAA Champions Stanford claimed their third-straight conference title (422.700), finishing ahead of Oklahoma (418.400), and Cal (405.600).

The Falcons' top performers were senior Oliver Zavel and junior Patrick Hoopes who claimed fourth place on the floor exercise and pommel horse, respectively. As a team, Air Force posted season high marks on the horizontal bar (64.200), and still rings (66.150).

Air Force began the rotation on the h-bar where Zavel led the team with a season-high 13.500 and tie for eighth place. Teammates Eric Popescu and Garrett Braunton finished tied for 13^th with 12.850.

Moving on to the floor exercise, it was Zavel again leading the way with a tie for fourth place and a personal season-high 14.250. Junior teammate Erich Upton finished tied for 10^th with 13.850.

AF moved on to the pommel for their third event. Specialist Patrick Hoopes claimed fourth place with a 14.600; he will head to nationals with a 14.862 four-score average and a season best of 15.400.8 Teammates Sam Brown (14.250) and Braunton (13.300) finished eighth and 16^th, respectively. Braunton's score marked a personal season high.

On the still rings, it was Jacob Bechetti to lead the way with a career-best 13.800 and ninth-place finish. Braunton finished just behind with a season-high 13.750 for 10^th.

A quartet of Falcons had solid showings on the vault led by Zavel's 14.200 and 11^th place finish. Upton scored 14.100 for 13^th, Braunton scored 13.850 for 16^th, and Woffinden scored 13.750 for 18^th. Despite the impressive scores, none of the Falcons hit a season-high mark.

Air Force wrapped up the event on the parallel bars where they struggled to hit the mark. Hoopes led the squad with a season-high 13.100 for 14^th place. Tai Gopaul (13.000) and Zavel (12.900) finished 15^th and 16^th, respectively.

Braunton represented the Falcons in the all-around, scoring a 79.200 for fourth place.

Next up, the Falcons will await selections to the 2024 NCAA Championships from April 19-20 in Columbus, Ohio, at the Covelli Center. The Men's Gymnastics Committee will select 12 teams, five all-around competitors and five individuals per event for pre-qualifying sessions for the championships. Advancing from the pre-qualifying sessions to the finals will be the top three teams and top three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams, plus the top three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor.

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