University of Minnesota men’s gymnastics coach Mike Burns announced today that Tim Pittman of Houston, Texas, has signed a National Letter of Intent to compete for the Golden Gophers. Pittman will join the Gophers in the fall of 2007.

A current member of the USA Junior National Team, Pittman was the all-around champion for the 16-18 year old age group at the 2006 VISA Championships held at the Xcel Center in St. Paul in August 2006. “Tim won the all-around title by two points at the VISA Championships this summer,” said Burns. “He’s not only a super talented all-around gymnast but he also took first or second on five of the six events at the Championships.”

Pittman had a stellar junior year with a fourth place finish in the all-around at the Junior National Championships held in Battle Creek, Mich., in May 2006. He also qualified into the individual event finals on pommel horse, still rings, and parallel bars. He went on to compete at the U.S. Qualifier in Colorado Springs, Colo., in July where he won the all-around title in the 16-18 year old age division. “Tim had an amazing spring and summer with all-around titles in two of the biggest competitions of the year. When it really counted, Tim delivered. We are extremely excited about Tim joining the Gopher program next fall and we expect him to have an immediate impact on the success of the program,” said Burns.

This fall Tim was selected to travel with the Junior National Team to Stuttgart, Germany to train with the German Junior National Team for a week. Pittman currently trains at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in Cypress, Texas, under the tutelage of Tom Meadows, Colby Van Cleave, and Mike Dutka. Gopher freshman Andre Berry also hails from Cypress Academy where he and Pittman were teammates. Cypress coach Colby Van Cleave is a Gopher Gymnastics alumnus and was a member of Minnesota’s 1995 Big Ten Championship team.