The Sports Examiner

GYMNASTICS: Biles wins All-Around I, but isn’t happy about it; Lee surprises in second.

Halfway to a sixth U.S. All-Around title: Simone Biles

“Tonight was pretty rough.”

That was Simone Biles’s summary of her night on the first of two All-Arounds at the USA Gymnastics National Championships at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday evening.

For Biles, a rough night was winning the four-event program, with 58.650 points, ahead of a surprise second-placer in Suni Lee (56.900) and a noteworthy performance from Jade Carey (56.100).

Biles had a major error on her opening tumbling run on Floor, trying a new combination that ended in a bobble and then a fall onto her hands. She still won on Floor (14.350), then had the top Vault score at 15.300, but had a second step on her landing on her first try. Biles had more problems on the Uneven Bars landing and was unsteady on the Beam before landing a new, unheard-of dismount that produced her only smile of the evening.

“Tomorrow will be better,” she told NBCSN’s Andrea Joyce afterwards. “I was so mad and disappointed on how I did; … I was very mad.”

She wasn’t the only one as many of the U.S. stars suffered through major errors. Riley McCusker lost a Pan American Games gold medal last week by falling off the Uneven Bars and she did so again, falling from a likely second to fourth overall. The 2017 World Champion, Morgan Hurd, had a couple of major errors on her Floor routine at the end of the night and ended up only eighth.

The good news from the evening came from excellent performances from Lee, in her first year in the senior division, and Carey. Lee won the bronze medal in the U.S. Junior All-Around in 2018, but hit her routines and ended up winning on the Beam (14.950) and scoring thirds on Beam (14.350) and floor (13.950).

Carey, who is trying to make the U.S. Olympic Team through the FIG World Cup apparatus qualifiers, posted the second-best scores – to Biles – in her specialties of Vault (15.000) and Floor (14.300). Even with 10th-place finishes on Bars and Beam, she finished third overall.

The men will compete on Saturday with the second All-Around; NBCSN will have it at 8 p.m. Eastern time. The women will be back for their second All-Around on Sunday. Summaries so far:

USA Gymnastics National Championships
Kansas City, Missouri (USA) ~ 8-11 August 2019
(Full results here)

Men

All-Around I: 1. Sam Mikulak, 86.750; 2. Yul Moldauer, 84.000; 3. tie, Shane Wiskus and Akash Modi, 83.950; 5. Trevor Howard, 82.250; 6. Riley Loos, 81.150; 7. Donnell Wittenburg, 81.100; 8. Matt Wenske, 80.950.

Event leaders:
Floor: 1. Mikulak, 14.650; 2. Loos, 14.350; 3. Moldauer, 14.300.
Pommel Horse: 1. Stephen Nedoroscik, 14.950; 2. Mikulak, 14,750; 3. Michael Paradise, 14.550.
Rings: 1. Alex Diab, 14.600; 2. Howard, 14,550; 3. Whittenburg, 14.500.
Vault: 1. Wiskus, 14.500; 2. tie, Kiwan Watts and Tim Wang, 14.400.
Parallel Bars: 1. Mikulak, 15.350; 2. Moldauer, 14.800; 3. tie, Wiskus & Modi, 14.500.
Horizontal Bar: 1. Mikulak, 14.200; 2. Modi, 13.700; 3. Paul Juda, 13.600.

Women

All-Around I: 1. Simone Biles, 58.650; 2. Suni Lee, 56.900; 3. Jade Carey, 56.100; 4. Riley McCusker, 55.700; 5. tie, Leanne Wong and Trinity Thomas, 55.400; 7. Jordan Chiles, 55.350; 8. Morgan Hurd, 55.050.

Event leaders:
Vault: 1. Biles, 15.300; 2. Jade Carey, 15.000; 3. Jordan Chiles, 14.750.
Uneven Bars: 1. Lee, 14.750; 2. Hurd, 14.400; 3. Thomas, 14.200.
Beam: 1. Biles, 14.950; 2. McCusker, 14.500; 4. Lee, 14.350.
Floor: 1. Biles, 14.350; 2. Carey, 14.300; 3. Lee, 13.950.

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