April 3, 2009
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Competing with an injury-hobbled Casey Sandy (Brampton, Ont.) and without the services of top freshman Miguel Pineda (Galloway, Ohio), a beleaguered Penn State men's gymnastics team placed fifth in the team finals of the 2009 Big Ten Championships at host Michigan's Crisler Arena on Friday evening.
Illinois and Michigan tied for first place with a score of 357.100, followed by Ohio State (349.900), and Minnesota (348.000). Iowa finished in sixth (337.750).
Senior Casey Sandy, the 2008 Big Ten All-Around Champion and Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, was unable to complete the defense of his conference title after suffering a foot injury on his still rings dismount. Determined not to let his team down, Sandy attempted his vault in the next rotation but could not finish it. Continuing to fight through the pain, he managed to perform his parallel bars routine, scoring a 14.350, good enough for a three-way tie for ninth place, but landed hard on his injured foot upon dismount. Not wanting to risk further damage, the seven-time All-American forewent competing in the high bar, one of his best events.
Miguel Pineda, one of Penn State's top pommel horse and still rings competitors, broke his hand during preparations for the Big Ten Championships and will miss the remainder of the season. He captured six rings titles and totaled 16 top three finishes during his rookie year.
Penn State scored below its season average in five of six events and set season lows in the pommel horse (51.050) and vault (61.450).
"Well, we really struggled tonight," said Penn State head coach Randy Jepson. "We came out of the blocks and were a little bit rough on floor, but we missed every pommel horse routine. It was tough to rebound from that. We will hopefully get healthier for a rebound for the NCAAs."
Junior Nick Virbitsky (Harrisburg, Pa.) was superb in leading the Nittany Lions, placing third in the floor exercise (tie, 15.250), fifth in the vault (tie, 15.550), and seventh in the high bar (tie, 14.500).
With the top 10 finishers from tonight's team event advancing to Saturday's individual event finals, Penn State will have five different gymnasts seeking titles in four events. Nick Virbitsky will aim for three titles (floor exercise, vault, high bar) with Allen Harris (floor exercise), Noam Shaham (Kfar Saba, Israel) (rings), Warren Yang (Nepean, Ont.) (vault), and Shaun Antonio (Rio Rancho, N.M.) (high bar) advancing in one event.
The individual event finals portion of the 2009 Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening in Crisler Arena. The competition will be broadcast live by the Big Ten Network.