Jan. 13, 2016
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WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Penn State men's gymnastics team captured its fourth-straight title at the 26th Annual West Point Open Friday, Jan. 13. The Nittany Lions scored a 412.350 in their first meet of the season to win the open for the 19th time in program history.
Big Ten Conference foe Nebraska placed second overall with a 410.600 and Army rounded out the top three with a 393.500. The Blue and White used a strong parallel bars routine in its sixth rotation of the day to propel itself to the victory in West Point.
"It was a challenging night," said head coach Randy Jepson. "We came out with a victory but Nebraska pressed us right to the end. There is a lot of room for improvement but I was pleased to see us go 1-2-3 in the all-around tonight. There are a lot of great teams out there and we have a lot of work to do."
Sophomore Michael Burns (Baltimore, Ohio) captured the all-around title for the Nittany Lions, while freshman Favian Valdez (Kearny, N.J.) placed second in his collegiate debut and senior captain Dominic DiFulvio (Marietta, N.Y.) completed the sweep with a third-place finish in the event.
The Nittany Lions saw event winners on three of the six events with Burns winning the high bar with a score of 14.200, Leroy Clarke, Jr. (Maplewood, N.J.) capturing the pommel horse title with a 14.300 and DiFulvio taking home the parallel bars title with a 14.400.
Freshmen Brayden Borromeo (Littlestown, Pa.), Valdez and Sam Zakutney (Ottawa, Ontario) made their collegiate debuts for the Blue and White. Valdez competed in the all-around in his first collegiate meet, placing second and hitting all six routines with a 13.200 on high bar, a 14.300 on floor, a 14.250 on pommel horse, a 13.200 on still rings, a 14.050 on vault and a 13.400 on parallel bars. Borromeo tied for second overall on the vault with a 14.250, while Zakutney placed eighth in the all-around and came in fifth overall on the high bar for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State had a slow start on the high bar with DiFulvio scoring a 12.750 followed by a 13.400 from Franz Card (Nashua, N.H.). However, Burns closed out the first rotation with a stuck landing and a 14.200 in the event to put the Nittany Lions in second behind Nebraska after the first rotation.
After a bye, Valdez stepped up as the second competitor for Penn State on the floor exercise, notching a 14.300 in his first score that counted for the Nittany Lions, while Christian McSwain (Jamestown, N.C.) turned in a 14.050 for the Blue and White. Burns came up big for Penn State for the second time in the evening, posting a 14.150 on the floor exercise and pacing the Nittany Lions to a 67.300 on the floor exercise.
Moving into its third rotation of the day, Valdez hit a 14.250 on the pommel horse followed by a 14.100 from Colin Coates (Emmaus, Pa.) and a 14.300 from Clarke. In the anchor spot for Penn State, Burns tallied a career-high 13.800 to bring the Penn State total to 202.55 through three rotations.
After three team rotations, Penn State used a 14.400 from Benjamin Cooperman (Southborough, Mass.) and a 13.450 from Noah Roberson (Williamsville, N.Y.) to start on the still rings before Burns earned his second career-high score of the day with a 14.300. DiFulvio, Valdez and Zakutney scored 14.100, 13.600 and 13.200, respectively, to close out the event for the Blue and White.
Penn State saw three gymnasts score a 14.00 or higher on the vault with Borromeo leading the way with his 14.250 in his collegiate debut. Also scoring well for the Nittany Lions on the vault were Valdez with a 14.050 and a 14.000 from from DiFulvio. As a team, the Blue and White notched a 69.450 on the vault.
Card started strong in the final rotation for Penn State with a 14.350 before a 13.400 from Valdez and a 13.500 from Burns pushed Penn State past Army. The hit routines continued for the NIttany Lions in their final rotation as DiFulvio tallied a 14.400 and Clarke notched a 14.300. The Blue and White scored a 70.500 on their final rotation of the night to post a team score of 412.350 to kick off the season.
Penn State 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.