Jan. 15, 2016
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WEST POINT, N.Y. ââ'¬" The No. 6 Penn State men's gymnastics team captured their third-straight title at the 25th Annual West Point Open Friday, Jan. 15. The title marks the 18th time that Penn State has won the event in its 25-year history.
The Nittany Lions bested their score from a week prior, posting a 424.850, while Army West Point placed second with a 616.350 and Navy picked up the third-place finish with a 415.800.
"It was nice to have victory but we didn't perform up to our abilities, stated Head Coach Randy Jepson. "We missed 11 routines, but we did have some bright spots. Dominic DiFulvio won the all-around which was great. It was a decent all-around performance, but there is still room for improvement, which is great news."
Penn State garnered the top spot in four-of-six events, taking the title on the floor (72.250), still rings (70.300), vault (72.950) and high bar (71.100).
In his career debut as an all-around competitor, DiFulvio picked up the title with a score of 83.400, while senior Alexis Torres (Cantano, Puerto Rico) nabbed two individual titles, including the high bar with a score of 14.700 and the floor exercise with a final tally of 15.050. Also winning two events for the Blue and White was Leroy Clarke, Jr. (Maplewood, N.J.), who notched the still rings title with a 14.550 and the parallel bars title with a 15.100. Altogether, 10 Nittany Lions qualified for the individual championships after finishing in the top-eight of today's competition.
Penn State opened the meet on the pommel horse with a third, fourth and fifth-place finish from Ben Cooperman (Southborough, Mass.), Colin Coates (Emmaus, Pa.) and Clarke, respectively. Cooperman broke his personal-best from just a week prior, scoring a 14.150 and Coates notched a season-best 13.950.
Moving to the still rings, Penn State grabbed the top-two finishes with a title 14.550 performance from Clarke followed by a 14.350 from Noah Roberson (Williamsville, N.Y.) in his debut donning the Blue and White. Also finishing in the top-three for the Nittany Lions was Cooperman, who posted a 14.000 to tie for third with Navy's Josh Gong. After two rotations, the Nittany Lions trailed Army by three points.
Heading into the third rotation of the evening, sophomore Joshua Smith (Baton Rouge, La.) posted a huge vault performance with a career-best 15.050 to take the second-place finish for the Blue and White freshman Wyatt Tyndall (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) qualified for the individual final with a 14.650 and a fourth-place finish. Finally, DiFulvio and Torres rounded out the top-eight on the vault with matching 14.450s.
Penn State took to the parallel bars in its fourth rotation where it saw a 1-2 finish from Clarke and Torres. Clarke secured a season-best 15.100 and Torres posted a 14.900. Junior Franz Card (Nashua, N.H.) garnered the fourth-place finish, vastly improving upon his score from a week ago with a 14.600.
The Nittany Lions roared back to earn its victory in the final two rotations of the night, winning the event team titles on both the high bar and the floor. Torres led the Blue and White, winning both events, while freshman Michael Burns (Baltimore, Ohio) tied for second on the high bar with a 14.500 and Clarke placed fifth with a 14.3000.
In the final event, Penn State used a floor exercise title from Torres, a fifth-place finish from DiFulvio, who earned a 14.500 and a seventh-place finish from Tyndall to notch their second victory of the 2016 campaign and 18th West Point Open title.
Penn State will have 10 student-athletes competing in tomorrow's individual finals including: Burns, Card, Clarke, Coates, Cooperman, DiFulvio, Roberson, Smith, Torres and Tyndall.
The Blue and White returns to action tomorrow night for the individual portion of the West Point Open. Saturday's action is set to start at 7 p.m.