Jan. 12, 2017
By Tom Shively, GoPSUSports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa - The calendar has turned to 2017, and that means the Nittany Lions are finally ready to start their regular season. They open up this weekend at the West Point Open, an event they have won 18 times in 25 trips, and they appear locked in and cohesive as final adjustments are underway.
The Nittany Lions have won the event three straight times under head coach Randy Jepson, who liked to keep his message concise heading into the season-opening meet. He emphasized consistency and health as two of the major keys this weekend in order for the team to have success.
"Number one, you've got to walk in healthy and walk out healthy," Jepson said. "Number two, you want to be solid and consistent that first meet so you can get some momentum heading into the rest of the season. I think we're prepared to do that."
Despite the recent successes at West Point, this team has taken a one-step-at-a-time mentality, trying to build a solid foundation for the rest of the season.
"Every season is different and every meet is different," Jepson said. "These guys are prepared to do a good job getting started here. The nice thing is that we will be facing a couple solid teams in Nebraska and the eastern teams here as well. Arizona State is going to be out there so it'll be a little different flavor than it is usually, and our guys are excited about that."
Along with Nebraska and Arizona State, the West Point Open will host Temple, Navy, and Springfield College, as well as Army, the team putting on the event.
"We don't face any Big Ten teams for a couple weeks here still, so we won't get a real test for where we are with the rest of the conference until later," Jepson said. "But this will certainly give us some momentum heading into those meets."
The rotation order has been set for the meet and has the Nittany Lions starting on the high bar and having a second-rotation bye. They will then compete in the floor exercise and pommel horse before a second and final bye. The team finishes up on still rings, vault and parallel bars in that order.
Five Penn State freshmen will be appearing in their first career meet and we can already expect to see some big things from them based on the impact they have had since arriving on campus this past summer.
"I'm looking forward to seeing our freshmen and seeing how they perform as a team," Jepson said. "Those guys haven't been on a team mix before because they competed as individuals all through their career until they get to college. So watching them step into a meet where their teammates are counting on them, it's a little extra weight on their shoulders to know that they have to carry their load and I'm looking to see how they respond to that."
The Nittany Lions were picked to finish fourth out of seven Big Ten teams in the preseason poll, something Jepson casually pushed aside as something to which nobody on the team feels the need to react.
"I don't care about it at all. We don't worry about that. We've been ranked down so far many times, he said. "One year we were ranked sixth and we were national champions. You've got to do the job every day and the last day is when it counts, so we want to aim for that last day."
Perhaps a similar story could be unfolding for this year's squad, all starting this weekend in New York.