Feb. 25, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics team used another trademark team effort to dispatch its second straight Big Ten opponent, as the Nittany Lions recorded a season-high score of 355.500 to claim an emphatic road victory over No. 7 Ohio State (347.200) on Saturday in Columbus. The regular season win was Penn State's sixth consecutive over the Buckeyes.
Ohio State gymnasts captured three of the six individual titles but the Nittany Lions' top-to-bottom line-up depth proved to be the tipping point, as Penn State won all six events as team. Fueling the victory was a program-record score in the pommel horse (59.500) and a season high in the vault (60.200) and the high bar (58.650). Penn State's overall team score, which was a 3.5 point improvement over its previous best, is the nation's highest this season entering competition on Saturday evening.
Individual wins were secured by junior Scott Rosenthal (Clearfield, Pa.) (still rings), freshman Tristan Duverglas (West Orange, N.J.) (vault), and junior Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel) (parallel bars).
Ranked No. 1 in the nation in the still rings, Rosenthal surpassed the 16.000 threshold for the fourth time this season, scoring a 16.100 to secure his fifth title in the event in 2012. Duverglas scored just off his season high in the vault (15.300), recording a 15.250, to claim his fourth first-place finish of the year in the event while Aronovich's parallel bars score of 15.200 was a team season high.
Sophomore Preston Gall (Columbus, Ohio) made a successful return to his hometown, placing second in the pommel horse with a career-high score of 15.250. A score of 14.950 from freshman Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) and a career-high mark of 14.750 by sophomore Adrian Evans (Boulder, Colo.) helped Penn State break the program record that it set less than a month ago at the West Point Open.
Freshman Matthew Felleman (Medway, Mass.) was also key to the win as Penn State's leadoff competitor. He set the tone for the Nittany Lions, as his scores in each of the four events in which he competed counted towards the team total and two of them, in the vault (14.950) and high bar (14.550), were season highs.
Junior Parker Raque (Louisville, Ky.) continued be to clutch performer, finishing second in the floor exercise (14.950) and in the vault (15.050). Sophomore Wasef Burbar (Arlington Heights, Ill.) displayed his All-American form in the high bar, placing second in his signature event with a season-high score of 15.250.
Senior co-captain Miguel Pineda (Galloway, Ohio) (15.050) and redshirt sophomore Nihir Kothari (Malvern, Pa.) (14.950) helped give Penn State a top three sweep in the still rings, finishing second and third, respectively. Pineda also placed third in the parallel bars.
After a week off, the Nittany Lions will return to action on Friday, March 9 when, for the second consecutive year, it competes not only outside the NCAA but also the U.S. border, visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico for a dual meet with the Puerto Rico National Team. In 2011, in its first international competition since 2005, Penn State won three events as a team and three Nittany Lions captured at least a share of an individual event title in a 342.500-340.550 victory.