Patrick Hoopes, Erich Upton Claim MPSF Championship Titles

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. -- Air Force seniors Patrick Hoopes and Erich Upton capped off their time in Cadet West Gym with conference championships, as the ninth-ranked men's gymnastics team hosted the 2025 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships this evening (April 5) at the Academy. It is the first time in program history that the Falcons have claimed multiple conference titles in the same meet.

Hoopes, who was named the MPSF Specialist of the Year earlier this week, captured his first conference championship following a 14.900 performance on the pommel horse – a finish that bettered the rest of the loaded conference field by 0.450 points and accounted for the highest score across the NCAA this weekend.

With a career-best total of 80.100, Upton became the first Falcon to ever win an all-around title at the MPSF Championships – and the first to do so in any conference championship since Jim Miller won the WAC title in 1992. Contributing to his second 80-point all-around of the year were team-leading marks on the floor exercise (13.800, seventh), vault (13.950, fifth), and parallel bars (13.600, seventh)

With today's titles from Hoopes and Upton, six Falcons have now been crowned MPSF champions, as the pair joined Arrin Wade (pommel horse, 2016), Tim Wang (pommel horse, 2017), Luke Texeira (high bar, 2019) and Garrett Braunton (high bar, 2023).

Air Force accounted for two of the top five scores on the pommel horse, as junior Jack Matlock finished fifth behind a score of 14.000. Elsewhere in the gym, junior Tai Gopaul finished within the top-half of the field on the high bar after posting a team-leading sixth-place score of 13.300, while classmate Denis Irimiea was the top-scoring Falcon on the still rings, finishing ninth with a score of 13.050.

As a team, the Falcons recorded a 313.350 – their third-highest tally of the season – to finish fourth in the conference standings. Top-ranked Oklahoma edged second-ranked Stanford 329.240-328.950 to reclaim the conference title and snap the Cardinal's streak of three-straight titles, while No. 10 California finished third with a 315.450. Air Force's best event finish of the day was a second-place 53.500 on the pommel horse, while the squad matched their season high of 52.900 on the parallel bars and set a new season-best on the high bar following a 51.850 outing.

Air Force will close out the collegiate season at the NCAA Championships on April 18-19.

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