ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Penn State men's gymnastics came through with clutch routines late in the meet to secure a title at the Navy Open on Saturday. The Nittany Lions scored 385.850, holding off the host Mids with their final score of 384.200.
Rounding out the five-team field were Springfield (372.650), William & Mary (367.450), and Temple (334.100).
Penn State has won team titles in back-to-back weeks, adding the first-place finish at the Navy Open to its title at the West Point Open. The Lions, who were competing at the event for the first time since 2014, ended Navy's six-year winning streak at its host event. Penn State participated in the meet in 2013 and 2014 and won both years.
Penn State struggled with low team scores through the first three rotations – high bar, floor and pommel horse. The Lions started to turn things around with a season-best 66.550 on rings and then erased a 5.6-point deficit while taking a 0.9-point lead after scoring 69.850 on vault.
The Lions had little room for error entering the last rotation, which had them on parallel bars and Navy on high bar. Senior Nick Mock got things started with a season-best 13.15. But after three routines they held just a 0.1 lead on the Mids. Fortunately, a pair of sophomores stepped up big to close the meet. Ethan Dick scored a personal-best 14.15 to put his team up 0.65 with one routine apiece to go, and Michael Jaroh, who was making his season debut, scored 13.9 to secure the team title.
"It wasn't pretty, but we got the W," Penn State head coach Randy Jepson said." We made some grave errors at the beginning of the meet and put ourselves in a big hole. The good news is we have been talking a lot about being gritty, and the guys pulled it together and had a strong second half, especially the last event. We got two great performances, one from Dick and one from Jaroh, on parallel bars. That was enough to put us over the top."
Dick had a big day for Penn State, posting two event victories. In addition to his title on parallel bars with a personal-best score, he won vault with a personal-best score of 14.35. He added a season-best score of 13.15 while taking third on high bar.
Jaroh was solid in his sophomore debut, scoring a personal-best 14.2 while taking first on rings. He was third overall on pommel horse and parallel bars.
Penn State had the best team score in three events – vault (69.850), parallel bars (65.800) and pommel horse (59.750).
The Lions took three of the top five spots in three events. Junior Chase Clingman was the runner-up on pommel horse, joining Jaroh (third) and senior Nick Mock (fifth). Junior Robbie Shamp was fourth on rings with a personal-best 13.55, joining junior Jaroh (first) and Nate Warren (fifth). Josh Reinstein posted a personal-best 13.15 to finish sixth on rings. On high bar, freshman Josh Karnes finished one spot behind Dick, while Shamp was fifth.
Kaleb Booth was a bright spot on a tough floor performance for Penn State, finishing second with a score of 13.7.
Up next for Penn State is a Big Ten meet against Illinois at Rec Hall on Saturday at 4 p.m. The meet is part of a double dual, going on at the same time as the Penn State women's gymnastics team's meet against the Illini.
"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us to match up with what our potential is," Jepson said. "It will be a challenge next week with a great Big Ten foe in Illinois coming in."
