The Camden High School graduate, who now trains in Houston, had the meet's best vault (16.200), its fourth-best ring routine (15.550), and, most surprising, its third-best floor exercise (15.000), the event he said he needed to improve in to get to Beijing.
Those results were a significant uptick from his showing last month at the national championships. In those three events in Houston, he finished second, third and eighth, respectively.
"I feel pretty good about tonight," Golden said. "My goal is to finish top three in my three events, and I came pretty close."
Golden can do that by matching his vault and floor-exercise performances tomorrow, when the men's competition ends, and nudging his rings routine up a position or two.
"I didn't complete my first pass" in the floor exercise, "which lowered my start value," Golden said. "So that's definitely somewhere where I can improve."
Golden's intense focus last night, despite a hometown crowd that supported him loudly, was a result of his game plan for these trials. Instead of reuniting with family and friends, he will be holing up in his Center City hotel.
"We're all going to meet up on Saturday night after the competition," he said. "I'll finally be able to see everybody. Right now, I'm just kind of in my own little container focusing on the trials."
Last night's results did little to clear up what promises to be a muddy Olympic-selection process.
The gymnasts' results here count 60 percent; their national championship scores, 40 percent. Regardless of what happens here, though, officials retain considerable discretion in naming the six-man team and three alternates.
That team, which will be named on Sunday, figures to include two top all-around finishers and a few specialists like Golden and Penn State's Kevin Tan.
