March 28, 2014
LINCOLN, Neb. - Led by a top score on the vault from junior Tristan Duverglas (West Orange, N.J.), the No. 7 Penn State men's gymnastics team opened their postseason run with a third-place finish at the third place finish at the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, Neb.
The Nittany Lions' total team score of 438.00 ranked third behind Ohio State (441.050) and eventual Big Ten Champion, Michigan (448.200). Illinois and Minnesota rounded out the top five finishers with scores of 435.350 and 429.150, respectively.
As a team, Penn State finished within the top five in all six events. The Nittany Lions registered a second-place finish on the vault (75.100) and a third-place finish on the parallel bars (73.900), while also finishing fourth on the floor exercise (73.700), pommel horse (71.450), rings (74.00) and high bar (69.850).
Duverglas led the squad tying for first on the vault, recording a 15.300 in the first session. Ranked seventh nationally on the apparatus, Duverglas posted his third highest score of the season to for the top score. Reigning Big Ten individual champion junior Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) finished third on the pommel horse, recording a 15.100.
Sophomore Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) finished fifth overall in his sixth all-around performance of the season. He recorded a pair of top five finishes on the way to his second highest all-around score in 2014 (87.200). Howard highlighted the evening with a second-place finish on the rings, swinging to a score of 15.700 and a fifth-place finish on the vault (15.150). Howard turned in two more top-10 finishes with a six-place finish in the floor exercise (15.150) and a seventh-place finish on the parallel bars (15.100).
Redshirt junior Nestor Rodriguez (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) also posted a pair of top-10 finishes, coming in at fifth on the parallel bars (15.300) and eighth on the vault (15.050). Rodriguez's performance on the parallel bars matches a season-high effort.
Next up, Penn State will compete in the individual finals of the Big Ten Championship tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. in the Bob Devaney Center. Following the conclusion of the Big Ten Championship, the Nittany Lions will take a week off to prepare for the NCAA national championship, which is set for April 10-12 in Ann Arbor, Mich.