On Saturday, April 5, Springfield men’s gymnastics competed at the Eastern College Athletic Championship — where sophomore Kaleb Palacio secured his championship on the floor event with a score of 13.650. It was a tight-knit competition between him and his teammate, junior Owen Carney, who scored just five hundredths of a point behind Palacio.
“This achievement is huge, not just for me, but for the team as well. Coming in as a transfer, I never thought being All-American could possibly be in the books for me,” Palacio said. “To me this shows that if you put your head down, grind, and work hard — the results will show, and they did.”
Although one of the two members of the Pride team surely could have come away with the victory, Palacio is the first member of the men’s gymnastics team in school history to win floor, and the 18th to win an individual event title.
“Kaleb has an immense amount of gymnastics talent. He is someone that is very goal-oriented and knows exactly where he wants to be in the future at the collegiate level,” Head Coach Matthew Davis said. “He tries to soak up the experience from coaches and even teammates that have been competing at this high level before and use it to help himself achieve his goals.”
All-around, Palacio finished runner-up at the competition with a score of 76 — including top 10 finishes in four of the six events and another podium on the vault. On April 2, Palacio was named a regular season All-American along with seven of the other top all-around athletes in the nation. Palacio earned additional All-America honors when he placed fifth at the United States Gymnastics National Championships with a score of 74.600. The Texan’s high score of the season came at Navy this year, where he scored a whopping 77.700 points.
“Kaleb competes in all 6 events in gymnastics. This can put a lot of stress on your body to perform at a high level on all the events. It is because of this that Kaleb and the coaches were able to really work together to provide ways to be smart with training and being prepared for competitions,” Davis said.
Palacio has qualified for the NCAA national championship all-around and will be competing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on April 18.
Other qualifiers for the Pride include Owen Carney on the floor and horizontal bar, Will Wilson on the floor and rings, Illinois native Evan Richert on the floor and vault, first-year Devon Felsenstein on the pommel horse and parallel bars, and Blaise Rousseau, who will also compete in the same events as Felsenstein. Another sophomore from Illinois, Gio Mantia, will also compete on the pommel horse. Felix Kriedemann rounded out the group for Springfield when he was selected to compete in the horizontal bar event.
“Connecting to my teammates has been a fun journey. Being gymnasts, it’s not hard to find commonality between us, seeing we all do gymnastics. Spending time with both first-years and upperclassmen outside of gym has deepened my relationships with all my teammates,” Palacio said. “Although we didn’t make it as a team, this is a unique opportunity for the eleven of us going to gain that experience, and for some, continued experience, to bring that energy back to the gym.”
Photo Courtesy of Springfield College Athletics