DALLAS — Jonathan Horton always knew he had the stuff to be “the guy.” Now, “the guy” can also go by another title: “national champion.”
Horton established himself as the one to watch early in this Olympic cycle — winning his first national gymnastics title Friday night in a runaway over Tim McNeill and Wes Haagensen.
Horton finished with 181.9 points, 3.4 better than McNeill and 3.9 ahead of Haagensen. Defending national champion David Sender, who led most of the first night, had a rough second day and finished 10th.
Horton’s victory wasn’t a big surprise. He has an Olympic silver medal on high bar and a fourth-place finish in the all-around at 2007 worlds on his resume. But he wanted a national championship, too, and anyone who thinks nationals in the year after an Olympics don’t mean much hasn’t checked with Horton.
He wanted this badly, and his win is more impressive given he’s only jumped back into serious, everyday training during the last three weeks, after a year that included graduating from Oklahoma, getting married to another Sooner gymnast, Haley DeProspero, and moving from Norman, Okla., to Houston.
He was on the team that finished 13th at worlds in 2006 and was part of the rebuilding project that helped the U.S. win a bronze medal in Beijing. Now that Paul and Morgan Hamm are gone for good, Horton knows he’s under the microscope as the road to London in 2012 begins.
He didn’t disappoint during two solid days in Dallas.
The highlight of his night came, as usual, on the high bar, where he strung together three solid release moves and caught the bar cleanly each time.
