U.S. Gymnastics Championships : Roethlisberger Wins Gold on Uneven Bars

Marie Roethlisberger, representing the SCATS club of Huntington Beach, won her first gold medal of the U.S. national gymnastics championships Sunday.

Roethlisberger, 20, received a 9.8 on the uneven bars for the gold. She was an alternate on the 1984 Olympic team and will be a freshman at Minnesota this fall.

She had qualified for the national team for a fifth time Saturday but said she was unhappy with her routines.

“I was very upset,” she said of her Saturday performance. “This doesn’t help,” she added of the gold she won with a 19.100 total.

Hope Spivey, 14 and the runner-up for the women’s senior all-around national title on Saturday, tied with Beth Hansen, 15, for second at 18.925 and newly crowned all-around national champion Jennifer Sey, 17 and a teammate of Spivey on the Parkettes of Allentown, Pa., was fourth at 18.825.

The individual event medalists are determined in competition among the top finishers from the optional and compulsory phases of the all-around event. The scores from the earlier competition count for 50% of the final mark.

Phil Cahoy, 24, a 1980 Olympian who won two individual championships twice while helping Nebraska win NCAA titles in 1980 and 1982, took the gold on the pommel horse with a 9.8 performance Sunday. Earlier, he made the national men’s team for the ninth time.

Daniel Hayden, who helped Arizona State win the NCAA championship this year, won a gold on the still rings for a second consecutive year and also finished first on the high bar. He was second to Cahoy on the pommel horse.

Tim Daggett, a member of the U.S. gold medal Olympic team, finished fifth on the pommel horse. He had received a 9.9 for the event in the optional phase of the competition while receiving a 10 from one judge. But he slipped off the horse early in his routine Sunday. After getting back on, Daggett resumed his daring routine and received an 8.95 for a total of 18.675.