March 8, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - On the strength of a season high team vault total, the No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics posted a score of 357.700 to defeat No. 9 William & Mary (338.900) and No. 13 Navy (336.700) in a tri-meet on Saturday afternoon in Rec Hall. Competing without their top performer, junior Casey Sandy (Brampton, Ont.), the Nittany Lions won every event as a team and individually and recorded their third highest team score of the season.
Penn State was dominant on the vault, claiming the top four places in the event. Senior Vladi Klurman (North Miami Beach, Fla.) won his third vault title of the year by drawing a season high score of 16.400 from the judges. Team captain Santiago Lopez (Cibola del Mar, Mex.) placed second with a 16.100 followed by sophomores Allen Harris (Lancaster, Pa.) (15.950) and Nick Virbitsky (Harrisburg, Pa.) (15.750).
Senior Derek Helsby (Orlando, Fla.) captured his first all-around crown of 2008, totaling a season-best score of 89.050 to claim it. The nation's fifth-ranked all-arounder entering Saturday's competition, Helsby won the pommel horse with a score of 14.950 and finished third in the floor exercise (15.000), parallel bars (14.600) and high bar (14.600), fourth in the rings (14.650), and sixth in the vault (15.250).
Senior Tommy Ramos (Guaynabo, P.R.) continued his comeback from injury by winning his second straight rings title. His score of 15.200 narrowly outdistanced teammate Josh Borromeo (15.100). For Borromeo, a junior, the runner-up finish was his third of the season.
Redshirt freshman Jason Chu (Los Angeles, Calif.) and sophomore Noam Shaham (Kfar Saba, Israel) accomplished a pair of firsts on Saturday. Chu earned his first parallel bars title (14.800) of his career while Shaham claimed his first high bar crown as a Nittany Lion (14.700).
Tying Chu for first place in the parallel bars was Santiago Lopez. Continuing his standout senior season, Lopez also finished in third in the floor exercise, giving him three top three finishes on the day.
Nick Virbitsky secured Penn State's other title, winning the floor exercise on a day when the Nittany Lions otherwise struggled in one their top events. The sophomore was victorious with a season-high score of 15.550.
Next weekend, the Nittany Lions will travel to the west coast for a tri-meet at No. 4 California. Penn State will face the host Golden Bears and No. 16 Army on Sat., March 15 at 10:30 p.m. ET at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif. Last season, Cal's scheduled trip to University Park was derailed by a freak snowstorm and its dual meet with the Nittany Lions was cancelled. In its all-time series with the tri-meet opponents, Penn State is 1-1 versus California and 44-18-1 against Army.