Jan. 8, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 7 Penn State men's gymnastics team opened its 2011 season with a 343.300-319.100 victory over No. 15 Army on Saturday night at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions won all six events as a team and, along with the all-around, captured five of six individual titles.
Sophomore Scott Rosenthal (Clearfield, Pa.) led Penn State, winning the still rings with a stellar score of 15.400. The mark, which was a career-high for the former walk on, also eclipsed the team season best from a year ago. For his performance, Rosenthal was honored with the Gene Wettstone Award for the meet.
Another member of the talented sophomore class, Parker Raque (Louisville, Ky.), had a strong showing. Competing in the all-around for the first time in his career, he placed first with a score of 83.100. Raque won the vault title (15.800) and finished second in the high bar (13.500) and fourth in the floor exercise (13.700).
Senior Warren Yang (Nepean, Ont.), who missed all of last season due to a shoulder injury, placed first in the floor exercise (14.400) and third in the parallel bars in his welcomed return to the Penn State line-up.
Penn State was particularly impressive in the pommel horse, equaling its team-high score from 2010 (57.600) just one week into the 2011 season. Sophomore Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel), the 2010 Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year, headlined the event for the Nittany Lions, winning by tying his career best score of 15.100. Junior Miguel Pineda (Galloway, Ohio) (14.600) and redshirt freshman Francisco Vazquez (San Juan, P.R.) (14.400) completed the top three PSU sweep in the event.
Pineda accounted for Penn State's final individual title, claiming the top spot in the parallel bars with a score of 14.300. Senior Matt Albrecht (Guelph, Ont.) placed second (13.800) in the event, one of two second place finishes for the team captain in the Lions' 2011 debut.
Penn State will be back in action next weekend when it competes at the West Point Open on Jan. 14-15. Hosted by the United States Military Academy on its southern New York campus, the Nittany Lions have dominated the annual competition, winning 12 consecutive team titles. In 2010, Penn State posted a score of 349.850 to top the West Point Open field and five Nittany Lions captured individual event titles.
The team competition is scheduled for Friday with the individual event finals to be held on Saturday. Both competitions are set for 7 p.m. at the home of the Army Black Knights, Christl Arena.