Rasile Finishes Eighth on Vault

After a near perfect vault in Friday night's preliminaries, Nebraska's Josh Rasile just missed landing his vault and finished eighth on Saturday at the event finals of the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships at the Lloyd Noble Center on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

A hop on the landing of Rasile's vault, which scored a 9.137, proved to be the difference in an eighth-place finish and a national championship in a highly competitive vault competition. Stanford's Dan Gill won the vault crown with a 9.487. Rasile's vault in the preliminaries scored a 9.525.

"The vault is like throwing darts in the dark," Head Coach Francis Allen said. "He went for the stick on the landing, took a big hop, and it cost him. He is a young kid (sophomore), who has a bright future ahead of him. The whole vault competition was so tight, a little mistake here or there will cost you the title."

Oklahoma's Jock Stevens finished second with a score of 9.437 with teammate Daniel Furney close behind with a 9.425. Kevin Donohue of Penn State placed fourth, after posting a score of 9.287. Raj Bhavsar, the all-around champi, was fifth (9.275), while Minnesota's Clay Strother followed in sixth (9.237). The top-six place winners earned All-America honors. Michigan's Edward Umphrey placed seventh with a 9.187.

Strother of Minnesota claimed the national championship on the floor exercise and pommel horse for the second straight year. Cody Moore of California won the parallel bras title, while Daniel Diaz-Loung of Michigan won the horizontal bar.