JUNE 9 • 2022 | 37

Alan Gerdov flips 
during a floor 
exercise routine.

MICHIGAN ATHLETICS

out early this year that they had 
earned two of the five coveted 
Team USA spots.
Armed with that knowledge, 
they went on to help the U-M 
men’s gymnastics team win Big 
Ten regular-season and conference 
meet championships and finish 
third in the NCAA meet this 
spring.
Wooten finished second on 
high bar at the Big Ten meet and 
earned a second team all-con-
ference honor. He also received 
the conference’s Sportsmanship 
Award.
His seventh-place finish on high 
bar at the NCAA meet made him 
an All-American. He also was an 
All-American on high bar in 2021, 
taking third in the event at the 
NCAA meet.
He’s been named one of U-M’s 
captains for next season.
Both Gerdov and Wooten were 
named to the Academic All-Big 
Ten Team this season. It was the 
third time Gerdov earned that 
honor.
Greg and Milla Gerdov, Alan 
Gerdov’s parents, came to the U.S. 
from Ukraine as religious refu-
gees.
So did Alan Gerdov’s maternal 
grandmother, Holocaust survi-
vor Faina Borshchukova, who 
celebrated her 84th birthday 
last month. She lives with Alan 
Gerdov’s parents in Lincolnshire, a 
Chicago suburb.
Alan Gerdov speaks fluent 
Russian. His father and grand-
mother speak fluent Russian and 
Ukrainian, and “my mother can 
understand Ukrainian, but she 
speaks Russian fluently,
” he said.
Wooten’s parents are Victor and 
Holly Wooten.
Victor Wooten, a five-time 
Grammy Award winner, is a 
renown bassist, songwriter and 
record producer. In 2011, Rolling 
Stone magazine ranked him No. 
10 among the Top 10 Bassists of 
All Time. 

Send sports news to stevestein502004@

yahoo.com.