April 6, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-- The Penn State men's gymnastics team opened their postseason run on Friday night with the team and all-around portion of the Big Ten Championships with a runner-up showing. The top-ranked Nittany Lions finished behind Michigan with a team point total of 434.050 to claim their fourth runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships in program history on Friday night inside the University of Minnesota's Sports Pavilion.
The team results watched as Michigan claimed the title with 438.900, followed by the Nittany Lions at 434.050 and Minnesota at 430.350. Ohio State (426.600) placed fourth, Illinois (424.450) was fifth, Iowa (422.500) was sixth and Nebraska (416.250) rounded out the standings in seventh place.
The Blue and White topped the team scores on the pommel horse and still rings, while placing second on the vault. Their pommel horse score of 71.950 was over two points better than their nearest competitor, while topping the charts by over one-half point on the rings at 74.700. They also posted a score of 74.600 on the vault.
Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) will enter the individual event finals with some confidence as he topped the individual standings on the pommel horse. The sophomore was the individual champion on the event last season and started off his stay on a high note by claiming his third best score of the season at 15.250.
Preston Gall (Columbus, Ohio) and Adrian Evens (Boulder, Colo.) both placed among the top-five on pommel horse, with Gall posting a score of 14.600 and Evans finishing with a mark of 14.300.
Senior Parker Raque (Louisville, Ky.) along with rookies Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) and Alexis Torres (Catano, Puerto Rico) all claimed top-five finishes on the still rings. Raque opened his final stay at the Big Ten summit by finishing second on the still rings with a 15.300, trailing only Mike Wilner of Illinois. The freshman duo of Howard and Torres posted identical scores of 15.050 to finish tied for the fifth spot on the still ring charts.
Tomorrow's event finals will feature the following Nittany Lions;
Floor Exercise - Alexis Torres, Trevor Howard
Pommel Horse - Mackenzie Dow, Preston Gall, Craig Hernandez
Still Rings - Trevor Howard, Parker Raque, Scott Rosenthal, Alexis Torres
Vault - Tristan Duverglas, Trevor Howard
High Bar - Wasef Burbar, Matthew Felleman
After competing in the individual finals tomorrow at the Big Ten Championships, starting at 8 p.m., Penn State will have two more weeks of training before turning its attention to hosting the 2013 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships inside historic Rec Hall from April 19-21. For complete NCAA Championship information, click here.
--NITTANY LIONS--