Fresh off a ninth-place all-around finish at the USA Gymnastics 2008 Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, former Golden Gopher Guillermo Alvarez has secured a spot on the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team, the organizing body has announced.

Alvarez is one of 15 memebers of the national team. Each team member retains his national team status until the 2008 Visa Championships in May.

The team consists of seven gymnasts who were named to the senior national team based on performances at the Winter Cup Challenge, plus the seven members of the 2007 World Championships Team, who automatically qualified for the squad, and one athlete who petitioned to the team.

In addition to Alvarez, the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team includes five-time national champion Blaine Wilson, who will be bidding to compete in his fourth Olympics games, an defending Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm.

A new U.S. men's team will be selected after the Visa Championships, which will take place May 22-24 in Houston and serve as the first step in the selection process to determine the six-man team for the Beijing Olympics.

U.S. Men’s Senior National Team
Guillermo Alvarez (Denver/Team Chevron/Univ. of Minnesota)
Alexander Artemev (Morrison, Colo./Team Chevron)
Raj Bhavsar (Houston/Team Chevron)
David Durante (Garwood, N.J./Team Chevron)
Sean Golden (Camden, N.J./Team Chevron)
Joseph Hagerty (Rio Rancho, N.M./Team Chevron)
Paul Hamm (Waukesha, Wis./Team Chevron)
Jonathan Horton (Houston/Univ. of Oklahoma)
Sho Nakamori (Albany, Calif./Stanford Univ.)
David Sender (Arlington Heights, Ill./Stanford Univ.)
Justin Spring (Burke, Va./Team Chevron)
Kevin Tan (Fremont, Calif./Team Chevron)
Yewki Tomita (Tucson, Ariz./Team Chevron)
Sean Townsend (Dickinson, Texas/Team Chevron)
Blaine Wilson (Columbus, Ohio/Team Chevron)