March 2, 2002

By EDDIE PELLS

AP Sports Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) U.S. champion Tasha Schwikert added another victory to her growing portfolio Saturday, winning the American Cup despite falling on her final routine of the day.

The 17-year-old Schwikert also won the 2001 Reese's Gymnastics Cup and the Pan American Championships. She said she will have to pass on the $15,000 first prize because she plans to compete in college.

Still, she earned a winner's plaque and put her name beside some of the biggest names in the sport- Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug - by winning one of the biggest international meets of the season.

Eric Lopez of Cuba won the men's competition, his second American Cup title in three years.

Lopez scored a 9.25 on his final routine, the high bar, to defeat American Paul Hamm.

Hamm, 19, was the best gymnast through five rotations, but he did only two consecutive release moves instead of his normal four on the high bar. That earned him a score of 9.1, and allowed Lopez to take the title despite his own less-than-scintillating turn on the bar.

U.S. national champion Sean Townsend finished fourth. Defending Olympic champion Alexei Nemov finished sixth of eight gymnasts.

"Sexy Alexei" spent more time mugging to the crowd than doing anything brilliant on the mat. He fell out of the running after the first rotation when he skidded off the pommel horse. A few minutes later, he fell off the rings and cut his routine short - asking for applause from the fans, who were shocked he didn't get back up and finish the set.

It was definitely not Nemov's best, but then again, nobody was really at his or her peak this day.

Schwikert started the day with a pair of vaults that were less difficult than what she tried last year at world championships, where she finished fifth.

She gained momentum, and the lead with a 9.45 on the uneven bars. Her 9.525 routine on the beam was the most electric. She pulled off a flawless flip on the 4-inch-wide apparatus, then made a perfect, twirling dismount that brought big cheers.

The fans were on her side for the floor routine, too, but she botched the landing on a somersault combo into the corner, fell on her backside, then slid out of bounds. The mandatory deductions left her with a score of 8.775 and kept the door open for 15-year-old American Courtney Kupets.

Kupets needed a 9.307 to win. Her routine was clean, but not difficult enough. She earned a 9.212 to finish second, ahead of Verona Van De Leur of the Netherlands.

The women's field was watered down this year, missing world champion Svetlana Khorkina and Romanian star Andreea Raducan. Raducan won the gold medal in the all-around at the Olympics but was stripped of it after testing positive for pseudoephedrine, a banned stimulant commonly found in over-the-counter cold medicine.