Feb. 15, 2014
| 431.150 No. 5 Illinois |
University Park, Pa. - Rec Hall - Attendance: 2,131 | 436.050 No. 7 Penn State |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Feb. 15, 2014 -In the Nittany Lions' first Big Ten conference meet of the season, No. 7 Penn State defeated No. 5 Illinois 436.050-431.150 Saturday evening at Rec Hall, stretching the team's winning streak to five consecutive team titles.
After the first rotation, Penn State led Illinois by a narrow margin of 73.850-73.100 in the floor exercise. Junior Matt Felleman(Medway, Mass.) recorded a career-best mark on the floor with a 14.850, finishing fifth individually.
The Nittany Lions topped the Fighting Illini on the pommel horse, 71.800-71.550. Senior Preston Gall (Columbus, Ohio) finished second in this rotation, tallying a season-best score of 14.800.
In rotation three, Penn State tallied a 73.450 on the still rings while Illinois put up a 72.600 on the vault. Sophomores Alexis Torres (Catano, Puerto Rico) and Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) placed second and third, respectively.
Junior Tristan Duverglas(West Orange, N.J.) took first place overall on the vault with a 15.350 in the fourth rotation. Junior Ismael Sanabria (Caguas, Puerto Rico) posted a season-best score of 14.600 on the vault to finish fourth overall. The Nittany Lions marked a 72.650 team total in the event to match their second best vault score of the season.
Duverglas also earned a career-best 14.350 on the parallel bars to contribute to Penn State's season-best team score of 72.650 in the event. Duverglas finished fourth on the parallel bars behind Howard (15.100) and Gall (14.700) who finished first and third, respectively.
Penn State had a strong showing on the high bar, earning a season-best 71.650 team score. Redshirt junior Nestor Rodriguez (Guaynabo, P.R.) finished first in the event matching his career-high and recording a season-best 15.000. Torres' 14.850 score placed him second overall and earned him a career-high in the event. Redshirt freshman Leroy Clarke (Maplewood, N.J.) also contributed a 14.450 to the high bar, marking a career-high fourth-place finish.
In Torres' first career all-around performance, he tallied a score of 85.400 and placed third. Howard took second place in the all-around with a score of 86.650.
Next up, Howard and Craig Hernandez will travel to Las Vega, Nev. Feb. 28-29 at the Winter Cup.