ROSEMONT, Ill. – Penn State men’s gymnast Josh Karnes has earned his second Big Ten Gymnast of the Week honors of the season the conference offices announced Tuesday afternoon.
The Erie, Pennsylvania, native posted a season best-score on floor (14.150) and parallel bars (14.600) in addition to his event win on high bar (14.000) to help the Nittany Lions secure their first ever Big Ten regular season title with a win over No. 4-ranked Nebraska. Without his scores on the final two rotations, the Cornhuskers would have pulled away and ended up out of striking distance by the final apparatus. Karnes’s P-Bar routine was the best in the nation this year, as no other Division I men’s gymnast has received a score that high.
Karnes ranks No. 1 in the country as a parallel bar gymnast. He has a four-score average of 14.150. He is also the nation’s No. 4 high bar gymnast, owning a four-score average of 13.783.
In addition to his Big Ten honors, Karnes was named a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award last week. The “Heisman Trophy” of gymnastics, the Nissen-Emery Award is inscribed with the following motto: “The true champion seeks excellence physically, mentally, socially, and morally.”