March 22, 2013
Season Statistics | Men's Gymnastics Blog
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-- An opportunity is all that you can ask for as an athlete and on Saturday, March 23 the No. 1 Penn State men's gymnastics team will look to seize their chance to close out an undefeated regular season at No. 7 Minnesota.
The Nittany Lions (12-0) currently sit atop the GymInfo poll entering the final week of the regular season and are looking to close out their first unblemished regular season since 2003. It would mark the 19th undefeated regular season in school history, the second under Jepson, and just their fourth in the last 40 years.
The Blue and White own the top team scoring average in the country at 444.767, a spot they have owned since the 2013 campaign began, and are the (73.667) and high bar (74.800). Their vault score of 74.400 ranks second behind Michigan (74.583) and they sit fifth on the floor exercise with an average mark of 73.833.
Felix Aronovich (Kiryat Bialik, Israel), Wasef Burbar (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Tristan Duverglas (West Orange, N.J.) continue to lead the country in four score average on the parallel bars, high bar and vault, respectively, while Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) ranks among the top three on the still rings, vault and parallel bars. The rankings are based on the four score model generated by GymInfo which takes a gymnast's top four scores, drops the highest score and averages the remaining three, using no more than two home meet scores.
Aronovich is the only gymnast that ranks among the top-15 in the NCAA in four events entering the final weekend of the regular season. The senior sits atop the charts on the parallel bar with a four score average of 15.217 and his highest score of the season, a 15.300 in the season opener vs. Army, currently ranks eighth in NCAA. He sits tied for seventh with teammate Preston Gall (Columbus, Ohio) on the pommel horse with a 14.883 average, ranks eighth on the still rings at 15.317 and is tied for 12th with Michigan's Michael Strathern on the high bar with an average mark of 14.567.
Among athletes ranked in the all-around, Aronovich holds the third highest overall score in the group of 22 with his 88.800 against No. 11 Temple and No. 12 William and Mary on Feb. 16 and his average of 87.250 is also ranked third. He has won eight individual titles this season, including four all-around titles, which ranks second on the team to Howard's 12 individual crowns.
One of the top freshman competitors in the country, Howard sits among the national frontrunners in three events. His parallel bars (15.150) and still rings (15.483) routine both rank second in the NCAA, while he sits third in the country on the vault (15.150). Among the qualifying gymnasts, his season-high vault score of 15.400 is tied for second in the country, a season-best 15.800 on the still rings make put him tied for third, while his parallel bars score of 15.350 ranks tied for sixth.
Burbar owns the nation's highest individual score of the season when he flew to a 16.000 vs. Springfield College on the high bar to write his named into fourth on the all-time NCAA list in the event. That effort gave him the school record, breaking his previous mark of 15.800 which he tallied at Temple on Feb. 16. His four score average of 15.483 tops the NCAA charts and is over two-tenths of a point higher than his nearest competitor and teammate Matthew Felleman (Medway, Mass.).
Duverglas has been a steady force on the vault for the Nittany Lions all season on the vault and enters the final weekend of dual meet competition as the steadiest performers in the country on the apparatus. His four score average of 15.233 is the top in the country, while his overall average of 15.133 is also the best in the country. His top vault of the year came at the Navy Open with a 15.350 showing and sits fifth in the NCAA and the sophomore has won three individual titles on the season.
The Saturday contest will be aired on the Big Ten on tape delay, with the complete meet being shown on Sunday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.
The dual meet with the Gophers marks the close of the regular season and the postseason begins on April 5-6 when the Nittany Lions travel back to Minneapolis to compete in the Big Ten Championships. Following the Big Ten summit, Penn State will turn its attention to hosting the 2013 NCAA men's gymnastics championships inside historic Rec Hall from April 19-21.
--NITTANY LIONS--