NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships : Houston Baptist Takes 1-2 in All-Around
It was odd enough that two Houston Baptist gymnasts were duking it out for the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. men’s all-around gymnastics title. The school is the smallest in Division I, after all, with just 2,700 students. Yet this boutique program presented the top two gymnasts Saturday, with nobody else among the powerhouse field close. Odd.
Odder still: Houston Baptist’s top two finishers happen to hail from Barcelona and Madrid. All-around champion Miguel Rubio and runner-up Alfonso Rodriguez, both sophomores, are not only this country’s top two collegiate gymnasts, they are Spain’s best, as well.
Oddest: Spain, in a snit, probably won’t allow them to compete in the Olympics. But that’s another story.
This all unfolded during the final day of the three-day NCAA championships, with all the individual titles up for grabs. Some American tradition had been preserved during the first two days when Nebraska returned to prominence by beating top-ranked Illinois and defending champion UCLA in the team championships. Saturday, however, was entirely untraditional.
A few words about Houston Baptist, which is not even traditional for small colleges; it wasn’t even founded until 1960. As for gymnastics, there weren’t any until 1972. Even so, Robert (Hutch) Dvorak acquired some small reputation for his program when his team qualified for the 1983 NCAA finals. Then, a couple of years ago, he inadvertently developed this Spanish pipeline, which so far has delivered five gymnasts and a top-10 ranking to his team.
“An assistant soccer coach was over in Spain recruiting soccer players,” Dvorak explained, “and somebody asked him if we’d be interested in a gymnast. That’s how we signed Jose Barrio. So I was joking around with the soccer coach and said if he was so good at this, why didn’t he recruit Alfonso Rodriguez, whose name I only knew because he had been in Gymnast magazine.”
Rodriguez, who had been contacted by UCLA (but which had no more scholarships by the time he was ready to commit), joined Barrio. Then Spain’s top gymnast, Miguel Rubio, got mad when the two came home and appeared to have passed him up. So he joined them all at Houston Baptist. They were called, wouldn’t you know it, The Three Amigos.
Saturday it was just the two of them. Rodriguez, who had finished fourth in the all-around last year, had been the leader after Thursday’s optional exercises, just .10 ahead of Illinois’ David Zeddies, .15 ahead of Rubio. But, as the compulsory scores began to go up, it became clear it was a two-man, one-country race. Nebraska filled in behind, with last year’s runner-up, Kevin Davis, finishing third and defending champion Tom Schlesinger finishing fourth. But neither was within a point of the leader.
Further behind was the UCLA contingent. Chris Waller finished 9th, Curtis Holdsworth 10th and Michael Chaplin 11th. Teammates Tony Pineda and David Moriel sat out the all-around competition to better prepare for the individual events competition Saturday night. The day’s only excitement came on high bar, the last event of the day for the leaders. Rodriguez got conservative and scored a 9.20. Rubio, who had trailed his teammate by a tenth, was the last man on the bar and he threw off a splendid 9.70 for the victory. He finished with 114.15 to Rodriguez’ 113.75.
The defending champion was diplomatic. Said Schlesinger: “If, as they say, two-thirds of our Olympic team was competing out there today, then Spain has a pretty good team.”
That’s our other story. Spain’s gymnastics federation has decided against certifying Rubio and Rodriguez for the Olympics. The two placed 52nd and 35th, respectively, in the World Championships and would ordinarily be invited to participate as individuals (Spain did not qualify a team). But Spanish officials are apparently angry with Rodriguez for refusing to come home and train there.
“I don’t understand,” said Rodriguez. “They told us we had to leave (to train). They gave me a choice between Russia and the United States--I chose the United States (laughs)--and now they are telling me to come back. It is personal, I think.”