UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A slow start in the Crisler Center was wiped out by 11 sticks from the Nittany Lions as the team posted a 323.850 at the 2025 Big Ten Team Championships, good for a second-place finish. The silver-medal matches the best finish by PSU since the team won the Championships in 2019.
Junior Ian Raubal won two event titles to ensure his spot in tomorrow’s rings and parallel bars individual finals. Seven Nittany Lions advanced to tomorrow’s individual finals. They will put on 13 different routines across the six apparatuses.
Penn State began its evening on pommel horse, where senior Ethan Dick posted a 13.550, a new season high. The score finished sixth best on the evening, earing Dick a spot in the individual finals. Josh Karnes also advanced to Saturday with an eighth-place finish on a 13.350. Despite the two qualifiers, Penn State ranked fourth as a team after one rotation.
Raubal posted a season-high 14.050 on rings to earn the event title, while Matt Underhill grabbed a 13.700 to finish seventh. The pair advanced to the individual finals with their top ten finishes, but PSU still sat in fourth after the first two rotations, 2.750 shy of third-place Michigan.
Penn State made its first move on the vault. Matt Cormier and Matt Underhill each stuck their landings, matching each other’s 14.450 score, good for fourth overall. At the time of the third rotation, Cormier and Underhill were the only two to stick the dismounts. The pair advanced to Saturday’s finals while boost the Nittany Lions as a team to third place.
Penn State’s best apparatus of the day was the team’s fourth rotation. The Nittany Lions earned three spots in the top ten of the parallel bars to send three gymnasts to Saturday’s individual finals. Raubal grabbed is second title of the day with a season-best 14.600 routine. Cormier finished seventh overall with his 14.000 routine on a stuck landing, just shy of his season best mark at 14.050. Karnes rounded out the top ten with a 13.850 to claim his second advancement to the individual championships. The routines advanced Penn State another spot as a team moved to second place.
The Blue and White looked to keep the momentum going on the high bars as the team ranked third in the country on the apparatus heading into the weekend. A rare fall by Karnes kept the Nissen-Emery finalist out of the individual championships for one of his top events. Akseli Karsikas had a strong second-place routine to secure his spot though, posting a 13.600. Cormier also advanced with a 13.450 routine, good for fifth overall. The Nittany Lions remained in second heading into the final rotation.
Finishing the night on floor, Penn State would need all the sticks it could get to maintain the silver-medal finish. Michael Artlip and Cormier made sure of it, both sticking the landing to get enough bonus points to hang on to second place. Cormier finished fourth overall with a 14.050 routine, a new season best. Artlip followed with a seventh-place finish on a 13.800 score, also marking a season-high.
UP NEXT
Following tomorrow’s individual championships, which begin at 7 p.m. in the Crisler Center, Penn State will take a week off before traveling back to Ann Arbor for the 2025 NCAA Championships. Competition is set to begin on Friday, April 18 and will continue through Saturday, April 19.