Jan. 29, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The fifth-ranked Penn State men's gymnastics team will seek consecutive wins over Big Ten opponents when it visits Minneapolis, Minn. for a dual meet with No. 7 Minnesota this weekend. The conference clash is scheduled for Sat., Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. ET at the home of the Golden Gophers, the Sports Pavilion.
Last Saturday, the Nittany Lions ended a two-meet regular season losing streak to Michigan by knocking off the Wolverines, 348.900-348.350, in a down-to-the wire, thrilling, nail-biter in front of 1,714 fans at Rec Hall. In the final rotation with only a few competitors remaining and with Penn State facing a seemingly insurmountable deficit, season-high high bar scores from junior Noam Shaham (Kfar Saba, Israel) and senior Casey Sandy (Brampton, Ont.) fueled an unlikely Penn State comeback and propelled the Lions to the win.
For Sandy, his career-best performance on the high bar capped an overall exceptional effort. The defending NCAA All-Around Champion captured vault (15.950), parallel bars (14.700), and high bar (15.450) titles on his way to capturing the all-around crown with a score of 90.000, the highest in the nation thus far this season. For his standout contributions to the Penn State victory, Sandy was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for the seventh time in his career, tying a conference record.
After three weeks of competition, Penn State continues to hold a prominent position in the national rankings. The Nittany Lions are ranked in the top eight in the nation in every event, including the No. 2 spots the floor exercise (59.000) and vault (62.667). Individually, Penn State has seven gymnasts ranked in the top 20 in the six events, led by Casey Sandy, who is ranked in five of six events and is the nation's No. 1-rated all-arounder.
Minnesota, led by head coach Mike Burns, a Penn State graduate and former Nittany Lion gymnast, is coming off wins over club teams Arizona State, Washington, and Calgary in a home quad meet last weekend. The Golden Gophers posted a season-high score 348.850, winning all six events as a team and four individually. Minnesota's top event is the high bar (56.425), holding the nation's No. 4 ranking, and also excels in the pommel horse (No. 5, 55.750) and parallel bars (No. 5, 57.375). Aaron Fortunato, ranked No. 3 in the nation in the parallel bars, Kit Beikmann, the 2007 Big Ten pommel horse champion, high bar standout Cole Storer, and freshman all-arounder DJ Repp headline the Gopher roster.
In 2007, Penn State met Minnesota for the first time during the regular season since 2000, with the Nittany Lions securing a dominating 354.200-343.450 victory at Rec Hall. Casey Sandy won three or more events for the fourth consecutive meet while Vladi Klurman outdueled Mitchell Mays, the nation's No. 1-ranked vaulter at the time, for the vault title. Penn State has not competed at the Gophers' Sports Pavilion since 2007 when it was edged by Ohio State for the conference title at the Big Ten Championships. The journey to the Twin Cities area will be the first of two this season for the Nittany Lions, as the National Collegiate Championships will be hosted by Minnesota from April 16-18.
Fans can follow all of the action of the Penn State-Minnesota dual on the Internet with live scoring updates. Find a link on the official website of Nittany Lion athletics, www.GoPSUsports.com.
Next weekend, a Penn State contingent made-up of freshman Miguel Pineda and volunteer assistant coach Vladi Klurman will travel to Las Vegas, Nev. to compete individually in the prestigious Winter Cup Challenge from Feb. 5-7. Pineda placed 19th in the still rings, scoring a 14.400, while Klurman finished in 17th in the pommel horse with a 13.550 showing at the 2008 event.
The remaining Nittany Lions will begin preparations for an upcoming dual meet with conference rival Illinois, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Sat., Feb. 14 in Champaign. Penn State topped the Illini during the regular season a year ago, overcoming a season-low score of 352.300 to claim victory. The Lions won with depth, capturing at least a share of five of six events as a team but just one individual title outright.