March 6, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Fueled by a season high score of 350.150, the No. 6 Penn State men's gymnastics team gained its first win against a Big Ten opponent this season and snapped a two-meet losing skid by besting No. 7 Minnesota (348.250) and No. 11 Temple (330.900) in a tri-meet at Rec Hall on Saturday evening.
As a team, Penn State won four events (floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, and high bar), established a season high in the vault (62.900), and scored above its season average in all six events. Individually, four different Nittany Lions claimed at least a share of event titles.
Freshman Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel) added yet another chapter to the story that is his terrific rookie season, tying Minnesota's Russell Dabritz for the parallel bars title with a 2010 team-best score of 14.850. He also placed second in the pommel horse (14.400) and still rings (14.750). For his standout performance, Aronovich was honored with the Gene Wettstone Award for the second time this season.
Senior Nick Virbitsky (Harrisburg, Pa.) continued his recent trend of impressive efforts, capturing his second floor exercise crown in the last three meets and third of the season. He also took second in the vault, tying a career best by earning a score of 15.900 from the judges.
Senior Noam Shaham (Kfar Saba, Israel) solidified the Penn State victory, claiming a share of the high bar by scoring a 14.500 in the final performance of the evening. He also contributed third place finishes in the still rings (14.650) and vault (15.800).
Freshman Scott Rosenthal (Clearfield, Pa.) fronted a 1-2-3 Penn State sweep in the still rings, winning his second title of the season in the event with a season high score of 15.100.
Other top three event performances were turned in by freshman Mackenzie Dow (Cranford, N.J.), who placed third in the pommel horse (14.100), and redshirt freshman Philip Harris (Lancaster, Pa.), who finished in a tie for third in the parallel bars (14.600).
Next weekend, the Nittany Lions will make their longest road trip of the 2010 season, trekking coast to coast from Happy Valley to Berkeley, Calif. for a tri-meet with a pair of MPSF foes in host No. 8 Cal and No. 9 Nebraska. Scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET start on Sat., March 13, the meet will be held at the home of the Golden Bears, Haas Pavilion. A year ago, Penn State suffered a close loss to Cal, 355.150-353.800, at Rec Hall. The Lions and the Cornhuskers have not met in the regular season since 2005 at the West Point Open.