March 22, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State all-arounder Nick Grant (Butler, Pa.) has been named Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Freshman of the Week for the third time this season, the conference announced on Monday. Grant, who also earned the award on Jan. 18 and March 1, was honored for his standout performance in the Nittany Lions' dual meet versus No. 2 Oklahoma last weekend.
The Nittany Lions have won five of the 11 conference freshman of the week honors bestowed this season with Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel) receiving PSU's other awards (Jan. 11 & Jan 25).
Grant helped Penn State post a season-high team score and season-high event score in the vault by earning a 16.050 from judges, the top vault score by a Penn State gymnast this season and the best since nine-time All-American Casey Sandy registered a 16.100 on April 18, 2008 at the National Collegiate Championships. He finished a close fourth in the event behind three of the top vaulters in the nation from Oklahoma.
Grant has recorded a team-high eight first-place finishes this season - four in the floor exercise and four in the vault. He also owns two of Penn State's top three scores in the floor exercise and vault in 2010.
The Nittany Lions return to action in two weeks when they travel to Columbus, Ohio to seek their third conference title at the 2010 Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships. The annual competition will take place from April 2-3 at St. John Arena on the host campus of The Ohio State University. On Friday, the team and all-around champions will be crowned while Saturday's action will feature the individual event finals. Both nights of competition are scheduled