I thought it was about time we looked at the fields for the upcoming P&G United States National Artistic Gymnastics Championships, starting with the Men's. Men's competition will be held on the 16th of August (Juniors 1pm; Seniors 7pm) and the 18th of August (Seniors 11.30am; Juniors 6.30pm) at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. USA Gymnastics announced on Thursday that Jonathan Horton (Cypress Academy of Gymnastics) had decided to withdraw from the competition in order to work on his competition readiness. He is being replaced in the field by Steven Jaciuk (University of Minnesota) who was next in line in terms of the Men's Program Point System which determines who qualifies to the Championships.

Let's talk Seniors. So obviously you cannot discount the 2012 Olympic Team Members and Alternates (Danell Leyva, Jacob Dalton, John Orozco, Samuel Mikulak, Steven Legendre and Alexander Naddour. Other current National Team members in action are Adrian De Los Angeles, Sean Melton, Akash Modi, Eddie Penev, Paul Ruggeri III and Brandon Wynn. And then you have the Collegiate Gymnasts - I could sit here all evening and go through them all, as they all have their merits and specialties but names that pop out to me are: Wyatt Aycock (Nebraska), Donothan Bailey (Cal-Berkeley); Stacey Ervin (Michigan), Landon Funiciello (William & Mary), Trevor Howard (Penn State), Steven Lacombe (Cal-Berkeley), Matthew Loochtan (Iowa), Ellis Mannon (Minnesota), Kanji Oyama (Oklahoma) and Eric Shryver (Nebraska). Another two Gymnasts to watch for are U.S. Olympic Training Center's Josh Dixon and Donnell Whittenburg.

And then we move onto the Junior Divisions, starting with the 17-18 Years division. I must admit that I am not as familiar with this field as I would like, and the same goes with the 14-15 years. However those I do recognize are: Swiss Turners' Dimitri Belanovski, Andrew Botto (Stanford), Allan Bower (Xtreme), Antonio Castro (Florida Gymnastics Training Center), Jacob Dastrup (USOTC), Chandler Eggleston (High Point Gymnastics Academy), Andrew Rickly (Hocking Valley), Taylor Seaton (WOGA) and Christopher Stephenson (USAF Men's Gymnastics).

For the 14-15 Juniors, some names to watch out for are: Bobby Baker (Aerial), the WOGA boys (Yaroslav Pochinka, Tristan Burke and Fabian DeLuna), Alex Diab (Premier), David Jessen (Rhode Island Sports Elite), Hunter Justus (Cypress Academy), Marvin Kimble (Swiss Turners), Yul Moldauer (5280 Gymnastics), Robert Neff (Swiss Turners), Marty Strech (Azarian U.S.T.C), Colin VanWicklen (Cypress Academy), Kiwan Watts (River City Youth Fitness) and Tanner West (Cypress Academy).

PARTICIPANTS: 
SENIOR MEN (Listed in Groups appear on the Start List for August 16th):
STARTING ON FLOOR EXERCISE:

• Jacob Dalton (Norman, Oklahoma/University of Oklahoma/Team Hilton HHonors) (FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB)
• Steven Legendre (Norman, Oklahoma/University of Oklahoma/Team Hilton HHonors) (FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB)
• Danell Leyva (Homestead, Florida/Universal Gymnastics Inc./Team Hilton HHonors) (FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB)
• Kanji Oyama (Huntington Beach, California/University of Oklahoma) (FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB)
• Paul Ruggeri III (Manlius, New York/U.S. Gymnastics Development Center II/Team Hilton HHonors) (FX, PH, SR, VT, PB, HB) 
• Michael Squires (Edmond, Oklahoma/University of Oklahoma) (SR)