March 17, 2018
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State men's gymnastics had a setback to Nebraska as it fell 404.500-401.550 Saturday, March 17 in its final home meet of the 2018 season at Rec Hall.
Following the meet with the Cornhuskers, the Nittany Lions honored the careers of Colin Coates (Emmaus, Pa.), Benjamin Cooperman (Southborough, Mass.), Quest Hayden (Harrisburg, Pa.), Joshua Smith (Baton Rouge, La.) and Greg Tamargo (Kennett Square, Pa.).
"On a day when you want to celebrate your seniors, we didn't give ourselves a lot to celebrate with nine missed routines out of 31, even an exhibition team," said head coach Randy Jepson. "That's frustrating at this point in the season. We should be better than that. We've had some injuries, of course, but we're just trying to lay it back together. Even with what we had on the floor today, it didn't reflect what we're able to do, so it's unfortunate that we didn't do a better job. My hat's off to Nebraska for coming in here on an away floor and only having two misses. They did a good job."
The Nittany Lions took four event victories on the day as Stephen Nedoroscik (Worcester, Mass.) notched the win on pommel horse, Noah Roberson (Williamsville, N.Y.) captured the win on the still rings and sophomore Sam Zakutney (Ottawa, Ontario) earned two wins with victories on both parallel bars and high bar.
Penn State put together a strong floor rotation to take the early 66.300-65.750 advantage after one complete rotation at Rec Hall. The Blue and White were led by Chris Sands (Lancaster, Pa.), who scored a 13.900 to place fifth overall, and Wyatt Tyndall (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), who placed seventh with a 13.700. The scores were enough to give Penn State the early lead, however, Nebraska took the top four spots on the floor exercise and scored a 70.950 on the floor exercise to take the advantage over Penn State after the second rotation.
Moving to the pommel horse, Nedoroscik captured his fifth pommel horse title of the season with a 14.650 and freshman Alex Frack (Nazareth, Pa.) notched a podium finish, placing third with a 13.200 on the pommel horse for the Blue and White. As a team, Penn State scored a 63.950 to bring its two-rotation total to 130.250 to trail Nebraska.
The Blue and White saw its second event victory of the day in the third rotation when Roberson picked up his third still rings win of the 2018 campaign, scoring a 14.400. Sands placed second for the Nittany Lions and third overall with a 14.150, while Tamargo finished just out of a podium placing with a 14.000.
In the fourth rotation of the day, sophomore Brayden Borromeo (Littlestown, Pa.) tied a career-high 14.250 to lead Penn State and earn the third-place finish on the vault. Tamargo and Brennan Pantazis (Sparks, Nev.) rounded out the top three scorers for the Nittany Lions, tying for seventh overall with matching 13.700s.
With two rotations to go, Penn State continued to trail Nebraska as it moved to the parallel bars. Working his way back from injury, Zakutney captured his fourth parallel bars title of the 2018 season, scoring a 14.600, while Pantazis picked up a bronze finish with a 13.900. Burns came in third for the Nittany Lions and fourth overall with a 13.500. The Blue and White scored a 67.850 as it had one final rotation to try and pass the Cornhuskers.
Zakutney capped off the meet with his second win of the day, scoring a 13.600 to tie for first on the high bar with Nebraska's Jake Bonnay. Frack placed fourth overall on the high bar with a 13.400 and Tyndall came in fifth with a 13.350 but the scores were not enough as Penn State fell to the Cornhuskers at Rec Hall.
The Nittany Lions cap off the 2018 regular season Saturday, March 24 when it travels to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a 1 p.m. meet against the Wolverines.