University Park, Pa. - No. 6 Penn State men's gymnastics fell to No .4 Illinois 406.500-405.950 at Rec Hall on Saturday night in their final regular season meet of 2024.
"Rough night - we can't be at 72% hit ratio and expect to be competitive with a really good team in Illinois," said head coach Randy Jepson. "It's tough to beat yourself, but we seem to have done that tonight. Illinois they did a good job of putting an A-team together. Congratulations to them on clinching a share the conference title."
On floor, Josh Karnes led the Nittany Lions with a score of 13.900, earning him a third-place finish.
"Some real bright spots with Josh Karnes coming through. He hasn't been doing very well physically and he did a great job," said Jepson.
Penn State set two season highs and one career high scores in vault. Josh Karnes' newest season high, 14.650, earned him a second-place finish with Landon Simpson (14.600) taking third. Sophomore Kacper Garnczarek narrowly missed the leaderboard but still recorded a career high 14.150. Penn State won the event 71.800 – 71.450.
Karnes took first place in parallel bars with a score of 14.650.
Senior Brandon Campbell recorded a 12.100 on pommel horse for his last meet in Rec Hall.
Penn State swept the top-three scores on rings to take the event 67.350 – 65.050. Freshman Luke Esparo claimed first with the score of 14.150. Ian Raubal followed close behind with 13.650 for second and Nate Warren with 13.800 for third.
Penn State saved some of its best performances for the last event of the night in high bar. Akseli Karsikas finished in second (13.800) with Karnes in third (13.700) to help win the event 68.550 – 66.200.
"Michael Artlip was stunning with his six events in the all-around," said Jepson. "I'm pretty pleased for him."
Michael Artlip competed in the all-around to notch a score of 80.550.
"We got to go get better and I think we've got a little bit of time to look inside our hearts and see what we can do better and hopefully the guys will rise to the occasion," said Jepson.
Penn State will travel to Champaign, Ill. in two weeks to compete at the Big Ten Championships.
