Santander Leads Maize Team to Come-From-Behind Victory

Saturday, December 12

Ann Arbor, Mich.

7:00 PM

Michigan

Maize and Blue Intrasquad (ex)

Santander Leads Maize Team to Come-From-Behind Victory

12/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics

Dec. 12, 2009

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen Arena)
Score: Maize 331.6, Blue 330.6
Records: U-M (0-0, 0-0)
Attendance: 371
Next U-M Event: Saturday, Jan 16, 2010 -- at the Windy City Invitational (Chicago, Ill.), 7 p.m. CST

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Senior Mel Anton Santander (Southborough, Mass./Algonquin Regional) won the all-around competition with a 83.350 to help lead the Maize team to a 331.6 to 330.6 victory over the Blue team Saturday (Dec 12) at the University of Michigan's men's gymnastics team's annual Maize and Blue Intrasquad.

The Blue team stormed to an early lead on the floor exercise in the first rotation, sweeping the top three scores with junior Chris Cameron (Winter Haven, Fla./Lake Region) finishing first with a 15.1, sophomore Syque Caesar (Port Saint Lucie, Fla./Lincoln Park Academy), second at 14.900, and junior Ben Baldus-Strauss (Wheaton, Ill./Wheaton Warrenville South), third with a 14.600. For the Maize, Santander swung a near flawless pommel horse routine. He received a 14.550 and first-place honors.

In rotation two, senior David Chan (Singapore, Singapore/Hale School) showed the precision and skill that earned him All-America honors in the event in 2008, posting a 14.050. For the second straight routine, Santander paced the Blue team again on floor with a 13.600.

Moving to the vault, the Maize team began to make up ground thanks to Santander's 14.850 on a near perfect full twisting Yurchenko.Meanwhile, the Blue team struggled on rings where its highest score was Baldus-Strauss' 13.200.

Junior/sophomore Andrew Vance (Plymouth, Mich./Catholic Central), recently named a Big Ten Gymnast to Watch, took the rings title with a 13.950. After the Blue team posted the top four scores on vault, highlighted by Baldus-Strauss' stuck one-and-a-half twisting vault, Chan's powerful handspring double front and the double twisting Yurchenko of freshman Rohan Sebastian (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness Catholic), who made his Cliff Keen Arena debut, the Blue team maintained a narrow lead, 222.75 to 222.15.

The Blue team saw its lead disappear in the fifth rotation, thanks to a spectacular high bar routine from junior Thomas Kelley (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) that included a perfect full twisting double layout dismount, earning a 15.000 and the event title.

Leading by over two points at the start of the final rotation, the Maize team moved to the parallel bars where fifth-year senior Ryan McCarthy (Zionsville, Ind./Zionsville Community) grabbed the title with a 14.000. The Blue team's final performance, Cameron's second-place finish on high bar, was not enough to overtake the Maize team.

The Wolverines begin their regular season at the Windy City Invitational on Jan 16 at 7 p.m. CST at the UIC Physical Education Building in Chicago, Ill. Michigan, the defending champions in the event, will go head-to-head with four Big Ten rivals (Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio State and Iowa) and host UIC.

Results

Team	Floor	Pommel Horse	Rings	Vault	Parallel Bars	High Bar	Total
Maize	52.650	55.550	54.750	59.200	52.850	56.600	331.600
Blue	58.100	51.200	51.800	61.650	53.350	54.500	330.600

Floor1. Chris Cameron            15.1002. Syque Caesar             14.9003. Ben Baldus-Strauss       14.600

Pommel Horse1. Mel Anton Santander      14.5502. David Chan               14.0503. Adam Hamers              13.800
Rings1. Andrew Vance             13.9502. Phillip Goldberg         13.8503. Mel Anton Santander      13.800
Vault1t. Ben Baldus-Strauss      15.6001t. David Chan              15.6003. Rohan Sebastian          15.350
Parallel Bars1. Ryan McCarthy           14.0002. Syque Caesar            13.8503. Torrance Laury          13.450
High Bar1. Thomas Kelley           15.0002. Chris Cameron           14.2003t. Ryan McCarthy          14.0503t. Mel Anton Santander    14.0503t. Ian Makowske           14.050
All Around1. Mel Anton Santander     83.3502. Chris Cameron           80.7003. Rohan Sebastian         77.300

Q U O T E S

Michigan Head Coach Kurt Golder
On his team's performance ... "I saw a lot of good things to night, but I also saw a lot of missed routines tonight, too. So, the content of our routines, some of the skills that the guys are working, if we can put all that stuff together and be very clean, we'll have a darn good team and darn good chance at winning it all in the end. But we've got a tremendous amount of perfection work and consistency to develop in the next couple of months."

On the team's expectations for the upcoming Windy City Invitational ... "We better hit a lot more routines, and we better look a lot cleaner. We better win it. We won it last year, and we should be a better team this year."

Junior Mel Anton Santander
On his performance ... "All I wanted to do was focus on hitting six-for-six. I had some good things, some bad things. Overall, I feel it was good, but not good enough. It's good starting point for me that will hopefully carry on to better things when season starts."

On how he'll prepare for the Windy City Invitational ... "I'm just going to work on staying clean and putting in some harder elements that I didn't complete tonight."

Contact: Scott Bregman (734) 763-4423