CHICAGO, Ill. – The Penn State men's gymnastics team took home the title and moved to 9-0 on the season as they scored 395.450 to Springfield College's 372.900, and host University of Illinois – Chicago's 356.550 in the UIC Dorin Forum on Sunday afternoon.
Penn State opened the day with a 64.700 on the pommel horse, led by junior Stephen Nedoroscik who scored a 14.600. Freshman Nick Mock added a 13.050, and redshirt sophomore Favian Valdez followed with a 12.900. Alex Frack was the final scoring routine with a 11.700, and Michael Burns wrapped up the rotation with a 11.600.
Penn State trailed UIC and led Springfield with the respective scores of 65.450-64.700-60.650.
On the rings, junior Isaac Hammett won his fourth-straight rings event, this time with a score of 14.050. Senior Chris Sands followed with 13.700, sophomore Parker Clayton scored a 13.550, and junior Brayden Borromeo tacked on a score of 13.350. Redshirt senior Noah Roberson brought in the final counting routine score with a 13.100. Michael Burns was the final competitor for the Blue & White as he scored a 13.050.
Through two events, Penn State took a 132.450-127.300-116.700 lead over Springfield and UIC, respectively.
Penn State saw three competitors tie for first on floor exercise as senior Wyatt Tyndall, Borromeo, and sophomore Brennan Pantazis all score a 13.950. Valdez came in fourth with a 13.750, and Sands and junior Sam Zakutney tied for fifth with a 13.700.
After the third rotation, Penn State recorded a team score of 201.750, Springfield followed at 185.150, and UIC was at 173.050.
The three squads would then move on to high bar, parallel bar, and vault and rotate between the three to close out the meet.
Penn State started the second half of the meet on the parallel bars. Tyndall won his first event of the season, scoring a season-high 13.900. Burns tied for third with a score of 12.700, and Clayton added on a 12.350. Zakutney scored a 12.200, and Valdez added a 12.050 for the final counting score. Frack tacked on a 11.100.
After four rotations, Penn State held a team score of 326.200, while host UIC was as 238.900, and Springfield was at 245.00.
On high bar, Valdez and Burns tied to take home the event title with a score of 12.900. Zakutney came in third with a score of 12.700. Redshirt sophomore Alex Thomason added a score of 11.400, while Tyndall pitched in the final counting score of 11.250. Sands was the final competitor of the high bar with a 11.200.
Penn State led with a 326.200 over Springfield's 311.650 and UIC's 299.400 as they all headed into the final rotation of the afternoon.
The vault was the lone event not to be claimed by a Nittany Lions, but Penn State see Borromeo and Tyndall take second with a tied score of 14.150, which was a season-high for Tyndall. Clayton followed at fourth with a score of 13.850, and Valdez came in fifth with a score of 13.750. Pantazis was the final Nittany Lion to compete and score for the Blue & White as he brought in a score of 13.350.
Penn State will see Stephen Nedoroscik and Alex Frack head to the Winter Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada with the preliminaries on Friday, February 15 and the finals on February 17.
