THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Roundup : Johnson Wins All-Around Gold Medal in Gymnastics, Daggett a Bronze

It wasn’t exactly the Olympics, but for Scott Johnson and Tim Daggett, it was the next-best thing.

Johnson won the all-around gold medal in men’s gymnastics Saturday, setting a Pan American Games record with 116.25 points, while Daggett took home the bronze medal just six months after rupturing a disk in his neck.

Johnson and Daggett are the only members of the 1984 Olympic gold medal-winning United States team still on the national squad.

Casimiro Suarez of Cuba, who accused the judges of favoring the Americans earlier in the week, took the silver medal with 115.50 points. He set the previous Pan Am record with 116.10 points in 1983.

“Scott did a good job,” Suarez said. “I feel a lot better today than previous days regarding the scoring. I still feel there were certain moments when I was a little bit under pressure in the apparatus.”

Daggett capitalized on errors by the Cubans and came from fifth place to win the bronze medal, edging Felix Aguilera, 115.05 to 115.00.

Daggett, who trailed Aguilera entering the fourth round, scored a 9.85 on pommel horse and a 9.55 on rings to clinch the bronze.

“I was very happy I was able to make the routines today,” said Daggett, of UCLA. “I was very, very fatigued and weak because of my injury.”

Johnson, 25, of Lincoln, Neb., scored a 9.85 on parallel bars, ending with a flawless double somersault dismount, and a 9.85 on floor, finishing with a strong double layout.

Johnson provided some nervous moments on his fifth apparatus, the pommel horse, when he fell off the horse and scored a 9.10, but he rebounded with a 9.75 on rings to clinch the gold.

“When I started, I was swinging along real well,” Johnson said of his pommel horse routine. “All of a sudden it was just a mental error where I got off balance and ended up standing on the floor. It was not where I wanted to be at that time.

“It was kind of tough for both Tim and I through the whole competition today. We weren’t getting the kind of scores we were getting in the team competition.”

Vaughn Alvey of Sandy, Utah, pitched a two-hitter, and the U.S. men’s softball team remained undefeated in seven games with a 4-0 victory over Panama.

Jim Clark of Redding, Calif., drove in all the runs with three hits. Steve Newell of Portland, Ore., had three hits and scored three times.

Panama slipped to 2-5.

The American women improved their record to 5-0 as Rhonda Wheatley pitched a no-hitter in a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands Antilles.

Shelia Cornell’s run-scoring single in the first inning dove in the only run and dropped Antilles to 3-2.

Wheatley, a 21-year-old right-hander from Inglewood, struck out 12 and walked two in her second start of the Pan Am Games. Earlier, she pitched a one-hit, 15-0 victory over Peru.

In five games, the women have had three no-hitters and two one-hitters.

Steve Goss scored six goals to lead the U.S. to a 25-19 victory over Cuba in men’s team handball.

Both teams entered the final round robin game with 3-0 records and will meet again tonight for the gold medal and a berth in next year’s Olympic Games.

In women’s play, the Americans kept their record unbeaten with a 24-17 victory over Canada. The teams play again for the gold medal tonight.

Cuba, paced by Mireya Luis and Lazara Gonzalez, trounced the United States in women’s volleyball, 15-8, 15-8, 15-6.

The Cubans had 61 spikes to 34 for the United States, and had more than twice as many stuff blocks, 13-6.

Luis had 17 spikes and Gonzalez had 15.

The U.S. four-man lightweight crew without coxswain outstroked Mexico, Canada and Cuba to win a gold medal in rowing.

“We didn’t want to die and let the Mexicans go by us,” said crew member Russell Lane of Kenilworth, Ill.

The other oarsmen in the gold medal boat were Dan McGill of Corvallis, Ore., Eric Rosow of West Hartford, Conn., and Don Tower of Media, Pa.

Jesse Posse won Uruguay’s first goal medal, taking the single sculls by covering the 2,000-meter course in 7:41.15. He outsprinted Mexico’s Joaquin Gomez, who finished 4.14 seconds behind. Cuba’s Elexey Marrero led until the final 750 meters and placed third.

Daniel Brisson of Bronx, N.Y., the 1985 national singles champion, never threatened and placed fourth.

Dan Carlisle of Corona set a world record when he hit 198 out of 200 targets in the first three rounds of automatic trap shooting. The record was 192.

Carlisle, who also holds the world record for Olympic trap shooting with a perfect 200, went on to win the gold medal.

Denise Parker, a 13-year-old who logs in at 5 feet and 90 pounds holds four national indoor records for junior girls, defeated 29-year-old Trena King of Kentwood, Mich., for the women’s archery gold.

Jay Barrs of Mesa, Ariz., made it a sweep for the United States by taking the men’s title.