Falcons Finish Fourth at Rocky Mountain Open

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force men's gymnastics team kicked off the 2026 season with a fourth-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday, Jan. 17. The Falcons combined for a 302.100 – its eighth-highest total under the current scoring system – in front a sold-out Cadet West Gym.

Senior Tai Gopaul accounted for the Falcons' top finishes on the final two events of the night, as the team captain placed seventh on the high bar (13.100) and 14th on the parallel bars (12.900). Gopaul was one of two seniors to lead the Falcons on an event at the RMO, as classmate Jack Matlock registered a 13.500 to earn a seventh-place finish on the pommel horse.

A pair of freshmen also accounted for top-10 finishers on Saturday. Isaac Koo accounted for the seventh-best floor score in the Air Force Record Book (13.500) to lead the team with another seventh-place finish, while classmate John Hults posted the highest pommel horse score by an Air Force Freshman (13.100) to tie for 10th on the pommel horse.

Fellow freshman John Calvin North IV and sophomore Jack Foltyn tied for the team lead on the vault with matching scores of 13.150 (14th), while sophomore Jared Fry rounded out the Falcons' list of event leaders with an 11th-place score of 12.800 on the still rings.

The Falcons had several more finishes within the top half of a field that included three of the top-four teams from last year's NCAA Championships. Senior team captain Sam Brown added a 12.800 to place 14th on the pommel horse, while Koo and Foltyn tied for 15th on the parallel bars (12.850) to five Air Force at least three athletes within the top 15 of those two events. Gopaul and Hults added 11th-place finishes to their scoreline, as the pair earned that ranking on the floor exercise (13.100) and high bar (12.650), respectively. Sophomore Ryan Jacobsen rounded out the Falcons' list of top-15 finishers, as he registered a 12.300 (15th) in his collegiate debut on the still rings.

Oklahoma reclaimed the Rocky Mountain Open team title – and accounted for its 24th RMO victory in the last 27 years, as it edged Stanford by a 323.950-320.750 margin. Nebraska finished third with 315.500, while Air Force (302.100), Arizona State (280.250) and the Rocky Mountain Mavericks (266.600) rounded out the team standings.

Former Falcon standout 2Lt Patrick Hoopes had a strong debut as a member of the Air Force World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) on Saturday night, as he successfully defended his RMO title on the pommel horse. The two-time NCAA champion and reigning World bronze medalist tallied a 14.850 to better the rest of the 35-gymnast field by sixth-tenths of a point.

The Falcons return to action on Saturday, Feb. 7, when they travel to Norman for a triangular meet with Oklahoma and Ohio State.

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Players Mentioned

Sam Brown

Jared Fry

Tai Gopaul

Patrick Hoopes

John Hults

Ryan Jacobsen

Isaac Koo

Jack Matlock

John Calvin North IV

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