The Shark Tank was packed Saturday night, but it wasn’t for hockey.
The men’s competition of the Xfintiy U.S. Gymnastics Championship wrapped at the SAP Center in San Jose, and a new all-around national champion with local ties was crowned.
Asher Hong, the 19-year-old Stanford freshman, was named the 2023 U.S. All-Around Champion.
Hong was a little unsteady on the first two apparatus Saturday night, falling into third in the all-around after the floor exercise, but he turned it around. On the sixth and final rotation, Hong was on the parallel bars.
He knew all he had to do was just do his routine like he has a thousand times in practice and he’d win. That’s exactly what he did.
“It’s really exciting,” Hong told NBC Bay Area after the competition. “I’ve put in a lot of hard work in the gym and you know in the next few weeks If I’m selected for the world team I’m going to go back and work just as hard to perform at the worlds and hopefully get the team on the podium.”
“It doesn’t surprise me he ended up on top,” said Thom Glielmi, head coach of the Stanford men’s gymnastics team. “We still have a lot of work to do to be competitive internationally. He knows that. I keep telling him you’ve got to compare yourself to the guys in Japan and China and Russia, not necessarily the guys in the college ranks.”
One out of every five men competing at the Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championship trained at Stanford.
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It wasn’t just Hong who did well. His teammate Khoi Young took home silver in the all-around, and Stanford’s Colt Walker finished in fourth.
Hong’s brother also competed in the junior men competition, earning a spot on the Junior National Team.
The initial 2023-24 Junior and Senior Men’s National Teams presented by Xfinity were named following competition Saturday night. Each team is listed alphabetically below.
Junior National Team Presented by Xfinity
- Hasan Aydogdu — Carlstadt, N.J./Meadowlands Gymnastics
- Sasha Bogonosiuk — Buffalo Grove, Ill./Gymkhana Gymnastics
- Grant Bowers — Taylors, S.C./Hayden’s Gymnastics
- Caden Clinton — Cypress, Texas/Cypress Academy
- Xander Hong — Tomball, Texas./Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
- Adam Lakomy — Roselle Park N.J./Sunburst Gymnastics
- Danila Leykin — Bradenton Fla./EVO Gymnastics
- Kiran Mandava — Cypress, Texas./Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
- Justin Park — San Diego, Calif./Agility
- Ty Roderiques — Knoxville, Tenn./GymTek Academy
- Nathan Roman — Poway, Calif./Agility
- Oleksandr Shybitov — Prospect Heights, Ill./Lakeshore Academy of Art Gymnastics
- Kai Uemura — Chicago, Ill./Lakeshore Academy
- Preston Ngai — Elk Grove, Calif./University of Illinois
Senior National Team Presented by Xfinity
- Cameron Bock — Tustin, Calif./University of Michigan
- Jeremy Bischoff — Santa Clarita, Calif./Stanford University
- Brandon Briones — Gilbert, Ariz./Stanford University
- Taylor Burkhart — Arvada, Colo./Stanford University
- Alex Diab — Hinsdale, Ill./EVO Gymnastics
- Dallas Hale — Frisco, Texas/Cypress Academy of Gymnastics
- Asher Hong — Tomball, Texas/Stanford University
- Paul Juda — Deerfield, Ill./University of Michigan
- Riley Loos — Folsom, Calif./Stanford University
- Brody Malone — Aragon, Ga./EVO Gymnastics
- Yul Moldauer — Arvada, Colo./5280 Gymnastics
- Stephen Nedoroscik — Worcester, Mass./EVO Gymnastics
- Vahe Petrosyan — Van Nuys, Calif./Gymnastics Olympica USA
- Curran Phillips — Naperville, Ill./EVO Gymnastics
- Fred Richard — Stoughton, Mass./University of Michigan
- Colt Walker — Cedar Park, Texas/Stanford University
- Donnell Whittenburg —Baltimore, Md./Salto Gymnastics Center
- Shane Wiskus — Spring Park, Minn./EVO Gymnastics
- Khoi Young — Bowie, Md./Stanford University
Senior Development Team
- Landen Blixt — Fowlerville, Mich./University of Michigan
- Joshua Karnes — Erie, Pa./Penn State University
The U.S. rosters for the 2023 World Championships and Pan American Games will be announced Sunday. Those selected to each team will be automatically added to either the 2023 Senior National Team or Senior Development Team if they have not previously been named to the team.
The Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships concludes Sunday with Day 2 of junior and senior women’s competition. The 2023-24 Junior and Senior Women’s National Teams will be determined along with national titles in the all-around and on each apparatus.
Watch the women’s competition at 7 p.m. on NBC Bay Area or stream on Peacock.
