March 16, 2008
BERKELEY, Calif. - The No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics team could not overcome No. 5 Cal's home gym advantage and a season high score and fell to the Golden Bears, 360.400-351.300, late Saturday night at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif. The Nittany Lions won the floor exercise (61.400) outright and tied Cal in the vault (63.050) but their team total was the lowest of the season.
Senior team captain Santiago Lopez (Cibola del Mar, Mex.) added another chapter to his fine season, winning the floor exercise with a personal season best score of 15.550. He also placed third in the vault (15.900). Freshman Warren Yang (Nepean, Ont.) and junior Casey Sandy (Brampton, Ont.) helped complete a Penn State top three sweep in the floor exercise, finishing tied for second place (15.500).
Sandy tied an individual season high score of 16.000 in winning his second vault title of the year. He placed second in the all-around (88.650), also finishing third in the pommel horse, sixth in the high bar, and eighth in the rings and parallel bars.
The Nittany Lions will conclude their 2008 home regular season schedule on Sat., March 22 when No. 3 Oklahoma visits Happy Valley for a 7 p.m. Senior Night match-up at Rec Hall. The dual meet will feature the winners of the last five national championships. In 2007, Penn State thrilled the Rec Hall faithful by edging the Sooners for its NCAA-record 12th national championship in come-from-behind fashion.