Aug. 17, 2007

San Jose, CA - Temple men's gymnastics team member John Vogtman received a call today, August 17th, from USA Gymnastics telling him he would be competing in the all-around finals of the 2007 Visa Championships held in San Jose, California.

The call came as a surprise after the junior barely missed qualifying out of Wednesday evening's preliminary competition. After finding himself in 11th place following his first two events, Vogtman ran into a few problems on what are normally considered very strong events for him, the vault and high bar. By the end of the day, Vogtman had dropped down to the first alternate position, meaning another athlete would have to scratch the competition in order for the call to be made. David Henderson of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado suffered a broken thumb while practicing the pommel horse earlier in the day.

This year's Visa Championships serves as a trials for the upcoming World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. While Vogtman is hardly considered a favorite to make the six-member team, just having the opportunity to compete on the floor with the nation's top athletes will give this fine young athlete invaluable experence as he looks ahead to the upcoming 2007-08 NCAA season as a Temple Owl.

Vogtman is the first Temple Owl to qualify for the all-around finals of a national championship since current women's head coach, Aaron Murphy did so in 2001. That championship was held at Temple's Liacouras Center. Additionally, Temple alum Nyika White competed at the 2003, 2004, and 2006 Championships as a still rings specialist, and earned himself a bronze medal on the event in 06.

Be sure to check back to owlsports.com for details from Friday evenings final competition.