The Nebraska Cornhuskers men's gymnastics team competes as part of NCAA Division I, representing the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in the Big Ten Conference. NU is one of just twelve Division I universities that sponsors a men's gymnastics program. Nebraska has hosted meets at the Bob Devaney Sports Center since 1976.
Since being established in 1939, the program has won eight national championships, finished as the national runner-up seven times, and won forty-two NCAA event titles. The bulk of this success came under longtime head coach Francis Allen, a former All-American who led the program for forty seasons. Twelve Cornhuskers have participated in the Olympic Games and combined to win four gold medals. The team has been coached by Chuck Chmelka since 2010.
Conference affiliations Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association / Big Eight Conference (1939–1994) Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (1995–2011) Big Ten Conference (2012–present)
Coaches Coaching history 1 Charlie E. Miller 1939–1948 16–25–2 2 B. R. Patterson 1949 3–2 3 Jake Geier 1950–1969 140–64–2 4 Francis Allen 1970–2009 5 Chuck Chmelka 2010–present 106–183–1
Coaching staff Chuck Chmelka Head coach 2010 Nebraska Zach Peters Assistant coach 2026 Nebraska John Robinson Assistant coach 2011 Nebraska
Venues Nebraska played its early years at the NU Coliseum before moving to the NU Sports Complex (now the Bob Devaney Sports Center) upon its completion in 1976. When Nebraska's basketball programs moved to the newly constructed West Haymarket Arena (known as Pinnacle Bank Arena for sponsorship purposes) in 2013, the Devaney Center underwent a $20-million remodel to reconfigure and shrink its main arena.
Nebraska opened the Francis Allen Training Complex in 2020 to house its men's and women's gymnastics programs; at 46,000 square feet it is among the largest gymnastics practice facilities in the country.
Championships and awards National championships NCAA: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1994
Team conference championships Big Eight: 1964, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation: 1997, 1999 Big Ten: 2024
Individual awards NCAA Top Ten Award: Tom Schlesinger (1989), Patrick Kirksey (1991), Anton Stephenson (2020) National coach of the year: Francis Allen (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1994) Conference gymnast of the year: Marshall Nelson (1998), Jason Hardabura (1999), Derek Leiter (2000), Grant Clinton (2002), Anton Stephenson (2019), Taylor Christopulos (2023, 2025) Conference freshman of the year: Taylor Christopulos (2021), Chris Hiser (2022) Conference coach of the year: Francis Allen (1999)
NCAA champions Phil Cahoy – 1980 , 1981 Steve Elliott – 1980 , 1982 Jim Hartung – 1980 , 1981 , 1982 Scott Johnson – 1983 Chris Riegel – 1983 , 1984 Wes Suter – 1985 Tom Schlesinger – 1987 Kevin Davis – 1987 , 1988 Patrick Kirksey – 1989 , 1990 Che Bowers – 1992 Richard Grace – 1993 , 1994 Dennis Harrison – 1994 Rick Kieffer – 1995 Richard Grace – 1995 Marshall Nelson – 1997 , 1998 Jason Hardabura – 1999 Asher Cohen – 2026
First-team NCAA All-Americans
Seasons
1939 Charlie E. Miller 5–3 Not available 1940 2–3 1941 4–2 1942 1–9 1943 Did not compete (World War II) 1944 1945 1946 1947 Charlie E. Miller 1–4–1 Not available Not held 1948 3–4–1 1949 B. R. Patterson 3–2 1950 Jake Geier 2–3 1951 5–5 1952 6–3 1953 10–1 1954 7–1 1955 5–1 1956 5–1 1957 8–2 1958 5–4–1 1959 10–2 1960 5–0 1961 7–2 1962 8–2 1963 13–1 1964 11–1 1st 1965 9–4–1 3rd 1966 6–9 4th 1967 9–8 4th 1968 8–7 5th 1969 2–12 6th 1970 Francis Allen 5–8 5th 1971 3–7 5th 1972 5–8 4th 1973 7–4 2nd 1974 6–4 3rd 1975 11–8 2nd NCAA 5th 1976 12–6 1st NCAA preliminaries 1977 37–19 3rd 1978 31–14 3rd 1979 66–6 2nd NCAA champion 1980 37–3 1st NCAA champion 1981 15–2 2nd NCAA champion 1982 39–0 1st NCAA champion 1983 45–0 1st NCAA champion 1984 31–10 2nd NCAA preliminaries 1985 41–5 1st NCAA runner-up 1986 21–3 1st NCAA runner-up 1987 25–4–1 2nd NCAA runner-up 1988 28–3 1st NCAA champion 1989 22–4 1st NCAA runner-up 1990 1st NCAA champion 1991 12–16 2nd NCAA preliminaries 1992 39–4 1st NCAA runner-up 1993 32–1 1st NCAA runner-up 1994 32–3 1st NCAA champion 1995 Francis Allen 3rd NCAA runner-up 1996 18–9 4th NCAA regional 1997 21–8 1st NCAA regional 1998 18–7 2nd NCAA regional 1999 24–6–1 T–1st NCAA 3rd 2000 10–11 3rd NCAA 9th 2001 7–6 3rd 2002 5–12 4th 2003 4–16 4th NCAA 11th 2004 13–16 4th NCAA 10th 2005 13–13 4th NCAA 10th 2006 4–15 4th NCAA 10th 2007 6–14 4th NCAA 10th 2008 7–14 4th NCAA 9th 2009 2–7 4th NCAA 9th 2010 Chuck Chmelka 8–10 4th NCAA 9th 2011 6–16 4th NCAA 10th 2012 Chuck Chmelka 5–19 7th NCAA 9th 2013 5–19 7th NCAA 11th 2014 5–22 6th NCAA 8th 2015 2–18 7th NCAA 2016 5–17–1 6th NCAA 7th 2017 12–17 5th NCAA 6th 2018 14–14 6th NCAA 5th 2019 8–6 4th NCAA 3rd 2020 7–2 Canceled (COVID-19) 2021 9–8 6th NCAA 4th 2022 9–5 2nd NCAA 4th 2023 10–6 3rd NCAA 5th 2024 6–2 3rd NCAA 4th 2025 3–4 3rd NCAA 4th
Olympians Ten Nebraska gymnasts and two coaches have combined to compete in sixteen Summer Olympiads, with nine representing the United States and one representing Canada. Francis Allen, Phil Cahoy, Larry Gerard, and Jim Hartung were a part of the U. S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow and did not participate in any events. Four years later, Hartung and two other NU gymnasts, Jim Mikus and Scott Johnson, won the team all-around gold medal in Los Angeles. Trent Dimas won Nebraska's only individual gymnastics gold medal on the horizontal bar in Barcelona in 1992; it was the second American gymnastics gold medal in an Olympiad held outside the United States.
Olympiad City Gymnast Country Medal(s) 1980 (XXII) Moscow Phil Cahoy United States Boycotted Larry Gerard Jim Hartung Francis Allen 1984 (XXIII) Los Angeles Jim Hartung United States Gold (Team all-around) Jim Mikus Scott Johnson 1988 (XXIV) Seoul Kevin Davis United States Scott Johnson Tom Schlesinger Wes Suter 1992 (XXV) Barcelona Trent Dimas United States Gold (Horizontal bar) Francis Allen 1996 (XXVI) Atlanta Mark Williams United States 2016 (XXXI) Rio de Janeiro Mark Williams United States 2024 (XXXIII) Paris Yanni Chronopoulos Canada
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