Jan. 26, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - By Anita Nham, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In the only double dual meet of the season, the Nittany Lions built on their season's accolades by capturing all six team events to earn a 444.700-436.350 win over No. 5 Michigan.
"The double duals are always fun," said senior Craig Hernandez. "We get the larger crowds because we have the women's [gymnastics team] and the men's [gymnastics team] together and it just makes for a much better atmosphere and I think our team showed that we liked that."
Penn State's score of 444.700 was the fourth highest score in program history.
"We're just pleased that we made progress in terms of our competition," said head coach Randy Jepson. "Last week, we hit about 86%. We had 88% tonight, but we had way more stuck landings last week, so we only had three tonight and twelve last meet. That's something we will continue to focus on, but I'm seeing solid performances and that's huge."
In addition to the Blue and White achieving its third consecutive team title of the season, four individual titles were awarded.
Hernandez placed first in pommel horse to receive his second title of the season as well as a school-record score of 15.950. Junior Trevor Howard was first in still rings with a score of 15.350, junior Alexis Torres finished first in parallel bars with a score of 15.700, and senior Matthew Felleman finished high bars with a score of 15.100.
"I don't really know if I was expecting to break the school record, but I know that with the judging that I saw previously and how well I did, I knew that I would at least be close," said Hernandez.
This meet against Michigan was the first Big Ten matchup of the season for Penn State and it brought up a stronger will to win.
"[Michigan] is a conference rival and they're a very solid program," said coach Jepson. "They just won two national championships. They're a good team. They aren't quite in shape as we are yet, but they will be, we know that, but I'm just glad that we're in a spot where we don't have to push. We can be methodical in how we prepare and there will be no surprises. We'll just go day-after-day and try to get better."
Hernandez builds on coach Jepson's statement about the conference clash.
"Since it is Michigan and our Big Ten rival, you know, we do like to try to do better at least," said Hernandez.
Penn State men's gymnastics hope to continue their success for the rest of the season by improving throughout practices.
"We still have some upgrades we can make," said coach Jepson. "We have some routines aren't on the floor yet and that's a factor of health. Our vaults can improve as well. We aren't doing nearly what we can do on the vault. We can upgrade on vaults pretty dramatically. We're training other vaults that are higher difficulty, but we want to be confident and secure every season and be safe and as the guys go through the season, we'll continue to add and hopefully by mid-season, we'll have what we need to make a run."
Even with daily practices, not all routines are perfect during meets.
"[Doing what you do in the gym and doing it in the meet] is the best feeling in the world," said Hernandez.
Hernandez and the rest of the men's gymnastics team will face-off against Ohio State at Rec Hall on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.