Feb. 10, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; February 10, 2013-- It was a loaded field that took to the mat on Saturday evening at the Las Vegas Sports Center for the finals of the Winter Cup. Matthew Felleman (Medway, Mass.) led the way with a ninth place overall finish in the all around and Penn State tied with Michigan for the most top-ten event finishes at the event with eight.
Penn State was the only institution to place three student-athletes in the top-20 of the all around competition and their eight individual top-ten finishes were tied with Michigan as the most by an NCAA participant in the field.
Felleman finished the night with an all around score of 82.750 and pushed his combined total to 164.800 to place him ninth overall at the US Senior National Team qualifier event. The sophomore posted his highest finish on the high bar as he tied for fifth in the event. He placed 11th on vault and the parallel bars, claimed an 18th place showing on the still rings and came in 20th on pommel horse to lead the Blue and White contingent. Felleman pulled in three scores better than 14.000; tallying his best score on the floor exercise at 14.200, finishing with a 14.150 on the parallel bars and 14.100 on the vault.
Parker Raque (Louisville, Ky.) pulled in a 15th place showing in the all around competition with an 81.200 showing in the finals to account for a combine total 162.050. The senior tied for eighth place on the still rings and the high bar, while placing 12th on the vault and tying for 12th on floor exercise. His highest individual score came on the vault with a 14.400 showing, while he pulled in a 13.750 on the still rings.
Freshman Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) improved his all around score from the prelims and finished the finals with an all around total of 81.400 to push his combined score to 161.250 and place 19th overall. He claimed fifth overall on the floor exercise, was seventh on the parallel bars, tied for eight on the vault and placed 12th on rings. Howard piled up four scores of 14.300 or better with his highest event score coming on the floor exercise at 14.550. He also scored 14.500 on the vault, 14.350 on the parallel bars and 14.300 on the still rings.
Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) took home the team's top individual finish when the NCAA's top pommel horse scorer came through with a third place showing on the apparatus. His score of 14.450 was good enough for the bronze, while senior Mackenzie Dow (Cranford, N.J.) claimed ninth on the pommel with a final mark of 14.100.
The Nittany Lions will take their No. 1 ranking on the road to take on Temple on Saturday, Feb. 16 with a 7 p.m. start vs. the Owls.
--NITTANY LIONS--