UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – It came down to the wire in Rec Hall on Sunday evening, but Matt Cormier’s impromptu high bar routine helped Penn State men’s gymnastics to a 329.050-328.850 win over No. 4 Nebraska, clinching a share of the 2025 Big Ten regular season title. The title is the first for the Nittany Lions since the Big Ten began observing a regular season champion in 2019. With the win, Penn State improved to 6-1 (3-1 Big Ten).
Penn State won four event titles in the contest on the back of 13 sticks.
“I am so happy for our guys,” said head coach Randy Jepson. “They have worked so hard, and we have faced so much adversity, I am just thrilled for them. We looked up at the score board when were down two and a half points, but we knew anything could happen. We will go out and enjoy this one for a day, but then we are back at it. These guys worked all season for this, but we are excited to be able to go out and continue to compete at Big Tens and NCAAs later this season.”
Penn State’s best floor exercise of the season came at the perfect time with Kacper Garnczarek kicking things off with a season-high 13.700. Karnes followed with a season-best mark of 14.150, a score that marked the highest tally by a PSU gymnast this season. Matt Cormier kept the season-high train going with a 13.800, and Akseli Karsikas posted a season-best score of 13.900. The group combined for a 55.550 event score, 1.550 higher than the team’s previously best mark hit last week at Illinois.
Nebraska made some ground up on pommel horse, trailing by 0.050 after the rotation in large part due to Yanni Chrinopoulos’s 14.200 event-title worthy routine.
Matt Underhill took yet another rings title with a 14.100 routine, just 0.100 shy of his season-best mark. Underhill, Ian Raubal, and Kellen Ryan all tallied sticks on the event, but Nebraska took the lead at 164.750-163.600 after three rotations.
Matt Cormier stuck his vault landing to tie Nebraska’s Chase Mondi for the event title with a season-high score of 14.350, but the Cornhusker’s execution was marginally better, helping Nebraska grow its lead to 1.850 over the Blue and White, with Penn State’s best two events still to come.
A slight stumble on Kacper Garnczarek’s opening parallel bars routine looked detrimental to the Nittany Lions’ hopes of a title, but the junior pulled together a stick to help salvage the routine and keep the Nittany Lions within striking distance. Ian Raubal posted a season-high mark of 13.950 on the next PSU routine, helping get the team back on track. Cormier followed with a 13.700. Karnes wrapped up the event for Penn State with a lucrative 14.600. The score won Karnes the event title and marked a new season-best for the senior. The score was the highest received by any NCAA Division I athlete this season on the apparatus. Despite the efforts of Karnes, Penn State still trailed 276.000-274.450 heading into the final rotation.
High bar began with a change in the PSU lineup after Michael Artlip was forced to withdraw. In his place, Matt Cormier stepped in, while the other three advanced one position. Garnczarek served as the opener for Penn State, and he proved to have a short memory from the p-bars as he posted a stick on a 13.700 routine, a new season-high for the junior. Akseli Karsikas followed up with his own season-best score of 13.950, also sticking his landing. Karnes put on a clinic once more to take home his second event title with a 14.000. With just Cormier left, the Nittany Lions would need at least a 12.800 from the senior, who did not take a proper warmup, to clinch the title. Cormier posted a 12.950, garnering an eruption from the crowd and his teammates as the score flashed on the Rec Hall board.
UP NEXT
Penn State will get a few weeks of well-earned rest before the traveling to Ann Arbor for the 2025 Big Ten Championships. The meet is set to begin on Friday, April 4 and continue through Saturday, April 5 in the Crisler Center.