Season Review: 2024 Michigan Men's Gymnastics

• Team Captains: Lais Najjar, Paul Juda
• Record: 24-4, 2-2 Big Ten Conference
• Big Ten Chanmpionships: 1st place
• NCAA Championships: 2nd place

The 2024 University of Michigan men's gymnastics season was highlighted by a Big Ten postseason championship and sophomore Fred Richard being named Big Ten Gymnast of the Year and Big Ten Gymnast of the Championship, while the Wolverines earned an NCAA runner-up finish. In addition, head coach Yuan Xiao was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Overall, U-M won 12 All-America citations at NCAAs, one NCAA individual champion, seven All-Big Ten honors and three Big Ten event titles.

Team Highlights

• Michigan earned a runner-up finish at NCAAs with a team score of 419.689. Individually, graduate student Paul Juda highlighted the effort by winning the floor exercise title. The runner-up team finish marked the third straight year the Wolverines have finished in the top three and ties for the highest team finish since winning the NCAA title in 2014.

• At Big Tens, Michigan took home a trio of individual titles with Landen Blixt winning floor exercise, Crew Bold winning parallel bars and Fred Richard taking home the all-around title. Head coach Yuan Xiao was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, while Richard was named Gymnast of the Championships for the second straight season.

• The Wolverines began the season on a hot streak, defeating Greenville and Simpson (Jan. 6), earned four wins at the Windy City Invitational (Jan. 13), and defeated Army with a 412.500 team score on Jan. 20. In the squad's first true road meet of the season, U-M fell at No. 5 Illinois 413.800-410.350 to drop to 0-1 in Big Ten competition. U-M rebounded with a 407.700 team tally to knock off No. 3 Nebraska (Feb. 10), and went on to defeat Springfield and Arizona St. on Feb. 17, scoring a 407.750 before the midseason Winter Cup break.

• Returning from the break, U-M blew out No. 1 Oklahoma with a 416.300 score, claiming the top three spots on still rings and finishing with five of six individual event titles with the second-highest team score in the NCAA on the season. The Maize and Blue trailed through the first two rotations, but took the lead during the third rotation with a season-high team performance on rings. Overall, five different Wolverines achieved new career-high scores against the Sooners.

• The Wolverines returned to Big Ten competition on March 9, and suffered their second Big Ten defeat of the year against Ohio St. in Columbus 412.150-407.400. However, Michigan closed out the regular season with a bang with a nation-leading 425.500 tally against Penn State on March 17.

Fred Richard

Individual Highlights

• Juda's triumph on floor marks the fourth time a Wolverine has won a national title in the event, as well as the first such victory since 1992 (Brian Hinkler). It also brings Michigan's all-time individual title count up to 44.

• U-M earned 12 All-America citations in all, led by three from Juda (floor exercise, vault, still rings) and Richard (all-around, still rings, pommel horse). Bold also added a pair (parallel bars, high bar), while senior Javier Alfonso (still rings), Blixt (floor exercise), sophomore Logan McKeown (parallel bars) and senior Evgeny Siminiuc (parallel bars) also earned citations.

• The dozen honors brings Michigan's all-time number to 264. This year's All-America haul gives the Wolverines double-digits in each of the last four seasons (10 in 2023, 11 in 2022, 13 in 2021).

• Seven Wolverines earned All-Big Ten honors, with Blixt (floor exercise), Bold (parallel bars) and Richard (all-around) earning first-team honors for their wins on their respective events. Additionally, Juda, Rithik Puri, Siminiuc and Chris Read earned second-team accolades.

• Xiao was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the third straight season, taking home the plaudit in each season at the helm of the Wolverine program.

• The Wolverines earned 52 individual event titles on the season

Honors & Awards

Javier
Alfonso

Landen
Blixt

Crew
Bold

Paul
Juda

Logan
McKeown

Lais
Najjar

Fred
Richard

Evgeny
Siminiuc

NCAA
All-America: Javier Alfonso (still rings), Landen Blixt (floor exercise), Crew Bold (parallel bar, high bar), Logan McKeown (parallel bars), Paul Juda (floor exercise, vault, still rings), Fred Richard (all-around, still rings, pommel horse), Evgeny Siminiuc (parallel bars)

College Gymnastics Association
Rookie of the Week: Kyle Walchuk (Jan. 10)

Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Gymnast of the Year: Fred Richard
Big Ten Sportsmanship Award: Lais Najjar
Big Ten Gymnast of the Championships: Fred Richard
Big Ten Coach of the Year: Yuan Xiao
Gymnast of the Week: Paul Juda (Jan. 22, Feb. 12), Fred Richard (March 18)
Specialist of the Week: David Wolma (Jan. 8), Javier Alfonso (Jan. 15), Fred Richard (Jan. 22, Feb. 5), Javier Alfonso (March 4)

Academic All-Big Ten
Javier Alfonso, Sr., Psychology & Cognitive Science, Miami, Fla.
Landen Blixt, So., Undeclared, Fowlerville, Mich.
Crew Bold, Sr., Sport Management, Delray Beach, Fla.
Paul Juda, Gr., Real Estate Development Certificate, Deerfield, Ill.
Steven Lukasik, Sr., Mechanical Engineering BSE, Tampa, Fla
Logan McKeown, Sr., Computer Science BSE, Austin, Texas
Fred Richard, So., LS&A Undeclared, Stoughton, Mass.
Robert Noll, So., Business Administration, Richmond, Mich.
Chris Read, Sr., Applied Exercise Science, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Lais Najjar, Sr., Computer Science BS, Oak Brook, Ill.
Zach Granados, So., Undeclared, Virginia Beach, Va.
Rithik Puri, Jr., Biomedical Engineering BSE, Chicago, Ill.
Eric Hoe, So., Movement Science BS, Phoenix, Ariz.