March 20, 2009
Champaign, Ill. - Two Penn State women's gymnasts have earned All-Big Ten honors, it was announced at the Big Ten Championships banquet Friday night in Champaign, Ill. Junior Brandi Personett (Katy, Texas) earned First Team honors for the third straight season as freshman Whitney Bencsko (Pompton Plains, N.J.) earned her first career Second Team honors. The awards mark the 42nd and 43rd total All-Big Ten accolades for the Nittany Lions since joining the league for the 1992 season.
The Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year honorees will be announced at the conclusion of the Big Ten Championships, which begin on Saturday, March 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET in Champaign, Ill. The meet will be televised live on the Big Ten Network and live scoring will be available via a link at www.GoPSUsports.com.
Personett, last season a NACGC/W First Team All-American on beam, enters the Big Ten Championships as the defending vault, floor and all-around champion. She ranks first in the conference on vault, floor and in the all-around, with a regional qualifying average of 39.365. Personett has competed in the all-around in all 10 meets of the season, finishing in the top five in all 10 meets and capturing the title seven times, including with a career-record 39.600. On vault, Personett has eight individual titles and has twice reached her season high of 9.950 while on bars, she has finished in the top five nine times, also setting a career-high with a 9.925 to finish first versus Alabama and Ohio State on March 1. A five-time Big Ten Gymnast of the Week, Personett has three beam titles while on floor, she has taken the title in all but one meet, posting a career-high-tying 9.950 twice in the last three weeks. For the season, Personett holds the top individual event marks in three of the four events (vault - 9.950, bars - 9.925, floor - 9.950) and the all-around (39.600).
Bencsko made a splash in her first collegiate and has kept on charging in her freshman year. In the season-opener against Pittsburgh, she finished second in the al-around with a 39.125 and was named the Ann Carr Award winner as the most inspirational gymnast of the meet. For the season, Bencsko has competed in the all-around and finished in the top five in nine of 10 meets, averaging a 38.883. On vault, Bencsko has eight top-five finishes and four titles, including posting a career-high 9.925 twice. Last weekend at Maryland, Bencsko posted a career-best 9.875 on bars for her first collegiate bars title while on beam she has six top-five placements. She has competed floor in all 10 meets of the year, recording six finishes in the top five, including a second-place and career-best 9.925 at West Virginia, where she also recorded a personal-best 39.425 for second in the all-around.
Penn State will open the 2009 Big Ten Championships on vault, followed by bars in the second rotation. In the third rotation, the Nittany Lions will have a bye and then compete beam in the fourth rotation. After a bye in the fifth rotation, Penn State will move to floor in rotation six before ending the meet with a bye.
For more information on the Penn State women's gymnastics team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.