It came down to the three amigos, teammates from Albuquerque, N.M.
Going into the final rotation of the optionals at the U.S. Men's Olympic Gymnastics Trials Saturday night, Trent Dimas, Chainey Umphrey and Lance Ringnald stood sixth, seventh and eighth.One would stay home. One would be the alternate. Whoever finished sixth or better would compete in Barcelona.
First, Dimas turned in a 9.55 on the horizontal bars to jump into the fifth spot on the U.S. team. Then Ringnald, a 1988 Olympian who is overcoming a serious shoulder injury, did just what he had to do, scoring 9.45 on the horizontal bars to nudge out Umphrey and claim the alternate's position.
Umphrey will be the only one going home.
"There were a lot of questions about whether I could come back," said Ringnald. "I can't explain all the emotions I've gone through. I don't want to wake up. It's like a dream."
It was a dramatic finish to an otherwise foregone conclusion. UCLA's Scott Keswick, who grabbed control of the competition in Friday's compulsories, easily captured first place with a score of 116.022.
"It wasn't a perfect meet," said Keswick, "but it was solid and I'm happy."
His college teammate and workout partner Chris Waller held onto second place with 115.200. NCAA and U.S. Championships winner John Roethlisberger of Minnesota rebounded from a shaky first night to take third.
They will be joined in Barcelona by Stanford's Jair Lynch, who scored two 9.9's on Saturday, and Temple's Dominick Minicucci, who hurt his right hand on the rings and fell from fifth into sixth.
Ringnald's success capped a courageous comeback. He tore a muscle in his right shoulder during a rings routine at the World Championships last September. The injury was so severe that the U.S. Championships last month was his first competition.