CHAMPAIGN, Ill.- Penn State men's gymnastics fights in tough 408.800-402.400 road contest at Illinois. Despite the loss, the Nittany Lions won three of six events including rings (66.400), parallel bars (66.150) and high bar (66.150).
After falling behind on floor and pommel horse, combined efforts from Michael Jaroh, Matt Cormier and Matt Underhill earned the team a win on still rings. Penn State's vault scores brought the team within a closer margin to the Illini and the Nittany Lions continued to narrow the deficit even more with their victories on parallel bars and high bar.
Junior captain Cormier was the lone all-around competitor finishing with a score of 81.700, just shy of his personal best. He took second on floor with a 14.050, fourth on rings with a 13.750, second on vault with a 14.600 and first on high bar with a 13.900. Cormier finished the night with a pair of stick bonuses on rings and vault.
Josh Karnes claimed his second straight parallel bars event title, nearly tying his career high from last weekend's meet with a 14.300.
Underhill took fourth place on rings (13.450) and tied for third on vault with a score of 14.550. This is the freshman's best mark on vault in his campaign.
Jaroh notched a season best score on vault (14.550), tying him for third with teammate Underhill. He also took second place on rings with a 13.950 and third on high bar with a 13.750.
Junior Ethan Dick tied his career high on pommel horse with a 13.950 landing him in third place overall and first among the Nittany Lions. He also topped his first floor score from last weekend with a 13.600 and his parallel bars score with a 13.450 good for third place tonight. Dick made his first appearances of the season on rings (12.750) and vault (14.100).
Fleck completed his first routines of his career on floor and high bar tonight. The freshman also competed on pommel horse.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions return to Rec Hall on Saturday, February 11 to host Michigan. The meet will begin at 4 p.m. in Rec Hall.
