March 22, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 2 Penn State men's gymnastics team will finish out its 2012 regular season schedule on Saturday when No. 10 Temple visits Rec Hall for a 7 p.m. Senior Night clash.
For seniors Colin Hill (Sterling, Mass.), Miguel Pineda (Galloway, Ohio), Logan Wyman (Phoenix, Md.), and Warren Yang (Nepean, Ont.), Saturday's competition will mark their final home appearance in a Nittany Lion uniform. The quartet will be honored in a special Senior Night ceremony following the meet. Last weekend, Penn State registered the nation's highest score in a decisive 359.300-347.900 victory over Big Ten foe Minnesota. The Nittany Lions' team total surpassed the previous season high of 357.050 held by No. 1 Oklahoma by over two points and ranks third in the Nittany Lion record book (in the FIG scoring era). For the second time this year, Penn State broke the program record in the pommel horse (59.900) and still rings (62.400).
In the victory, the Nittany Lions won all six events as a team, setting season highs in five of them. Penn State also captured individual titles in every event, led by junior Parker Raque (Louisville, Ky.), who placed first in the floor exercise (15.800) and vault (15.100).
Junior Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel) put on a phenomenal performance, claiming the all-around with a score of 89.400, easily topping his previous career high of 87.150. He posted career bests in three events (floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings) and earned a share of the parallel bars title en route to the nation's fourth-highest all-around score this season. Other event winners included freshman Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) (pommel horse), junior Scott Rosenthal (Clearfield, Pa.) (still rings), and sophomore Wasef Burbar (Arlington Heights, Ill.) (high bar).
Senior Warren Yang will compete for the last time in Rec Hall on Saturday |
As the regular season draws to a close and the onset of the postseason sits just two weeks away, Penn State will look to continue to build momentum and better its position in the rankings when it faces Temple on Saturday. The Nittany Lions have not suffered defeat since it fell to Michigan in Ann Arbor on January 21 and is just one of four teams to possess a four score average above the 352.000 plateau. Penn State is ranked in the top five in all six events, including No. 1 in the pommel horse and still rings. Individually, 13 different Nittany Lions hold top 20 event rankings, led by Scott Rosenthal, who remains the nation's clear-cut No. 1 still rings competitor. Others with top five rankings include Parker Raque (No. 3, FX), Craig Hernandez (No. 3, PH), Felix Aronovich (No. 4, PB), Miguel Pineda (No. 5, SR), and Wasef Burbar (No. 5, HB).
Temple, which possesses a four score average of 339.267 and a season high team total of 342.300, is coming off tri-meet wins over William & Mary and Army last weekend. As a team, the Owls' top event is the still rings, ranking sixth with a 57.933 average and a 58.200 season high score. Temple has two gymnasts ranked in the top 20, Taylor Brana, who is tied at No. 19 in the still rings, and Adam Al-Rokh, who is No. 14 in the all-around.
Penn State has more wins against Temple, 79, than any other team in program history. Earlier this season, the Nittany Lions defeated the Owls, 352.000-342.300, as part of their title-winning effort at the West Point Open. Penn State's last lost to Temple in 1995, a 221.450-221.350 setback in Philadelphia.
Fans can follow all of the action of the Penn State-Temple dual on the Internet with live scoring updates. Find a link on the official website of Nittany Lion athletics, www.GoPSUsports.com.
Penn State will return to action in two weeks when it travels to Iowa City, Iowa to seek their third conference title at the 2012 Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships. The annual competition will take place from April 6-7 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on the host campus of the University of Iowa. 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 to begin at 8 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live by the Big Ten Network.