COLLEGE GYMNASTICS ASSOCIATION BIG TEN CONFERENCE GYMNASTICS CGA WEEKLY REPORT March 6, 2011 Compiled by Jerry Wright UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS captured titles. With the wins, Penn State has The University of Michigan won each event Third-ranked Illinois placed second in its defeated every Big Ten team during the regu- and posted its best score of the campaign first quad meet of the season Friday, tallying lar season following previous dual meet victo- (353.400) to pick up a win at Arizona State a score of 351.60 to finish behind No. 2 Stan- ries over heavyweights Michigan, Illinois, (327.550) on Wednesday (March 2) in the ford (357.80) and ahead of host No. 13 UIC and Ohio State. Aspire Training Center. (340.20) and No. 12 Air Force (338.00). Sophomore Felix Aronovich the reigning With the team finally returning to a healthy Daniel Ribeiro and Chad Wiest each col- CGA National Gymnast of the Week, com- force, using the Arizona sun and break from lected individual event titles, as Ribeiro tied peted in the all-around for the second consec- classes, the Wolverines posted a phenomenal for first on pommel horse (14.80) and Wiest utive week, winning it again unopposed with 17 season-high scores en route to posting a tied for first on vault, matching his career best a score of 86.200. He secured the parallel bars season-high team score. with a score of 15.90. title (14.600) and placed second in the high Of the numerous season-high scores, nota- "There's been bar (14.800). ble scores were posted by freshman Sam highs and lows The remarkable season for sophomore Scott Mikulak scoring a first-place 16.60 on vault for us this season WIEST Rosenthal continued on Saturday, as he fin- with his famous triple twisting vault; Syque and right now, ished first in the still rings for the eighth time there's far more this season, scoring a 15.600 to take the title. lows than highs," Rosenthal spearheaded a top three sweep in head coach Justin the rings, with Miguel Pineda and Matt Chel- Spring said. berg placing second and third, respectively. "The consistency Chelberg also played a role in helping the just isn't there. Nittany Lions record a season high total in We only hit on floor exercise, earning a career best score of all four routines 15.100 to secure first place. Redshirt fresh- on vault tonight. man Francisco Vazquez finished second, just We're doing off Chelberg's pace, registering a 15.000. MIKULAK things well in The performance of the night for Penn practice, but it's State, however, was contributed by freshman not carrying over Wasef Burbar. He won the high bar with a into the meets." career best and team season high score of Several Illini 15.100. Burbar's score also ranked third na- posted career- tionally this high scores en season among route to top-five active competi- finishes, including Anthony Sacramento tors. (2nd; 15.50) on rings, freshman Alex Varga P a r k e r on floor (2nd; 15.00) and vault (T-4th; 15.70), Raque saved Austin Phillips (3rd; 14.70) and freshman Penn State Caesar scoring a winning 15.45 on parallel Cameron Rogers (T-5th; 14.40) on parallel from a below bars with an upgraded routine; and Ben Bal- bars, and Wiest (5th; 14.50) and freshman average team dus-Strauss scoring a career-high 15.90 on Jordan Valdez (3rd; 14.90) on high bar. score in the vault in his first competition of the season. Additional top-five finishes were recorded vault, winning "If this was a home competition I would by Wiest on floor (3rd; 14.80), Yoshi Mori the event with split the Newt Loken award between Syque on pommel horse (4th; 14.60) and vault (T- a score of Caesar and Sam Mikulak; they were outstand- 4th; 15.70), and Mizoguchi on rings (5th; 15.900. The BURBAR ing today." said Golder. "I'm also very 14.90) and all-around (2nd; 86.30). last competitor pleased with Michael Myler and Adam in the line-up, Hamers pommel horse; they showed their PENN STATE UNIVERSITY Raque came consistency on the event for the third compe- Despite an overall uneven performance, No. through for the tition in a row." 5 Penn State maintained its winning ways Lions with a Mikulak also won the floor exercise (15.10), along with its unblemished 2011 record, total- strong effort. Hamers placed first on pommel horse (15.30), ing a 351.600 to defeat host No. 8 Minnesota and Thomas Kelley claimed the still rings (344.600) and No. 10 Iowa (333.800) in a tri- (14.60) crown and tied Ian Makowske for the meet on Saturday evening at the Gophers' high bar title with matching 15.35s. Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis. Michigan’s meet originally scheduled for Penn State claimed five of six events, both this week in Ensenada, Mexico fell through so as a team and individually. Its team depth was Continued next page. instead Michigan traveled to Phoenix, AZ. on display, as five different Nittany Lions Temple rounded out the meet with a 332.90 Iowa couldn't quite keep up the pace coming UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA for fourth place. off their best performance of the season, ham- The University of Minnesota had a solid On floor Philip Onorato and Jeff Treleaven pered by an injury to Mike Jiang. Jiang was final home meet of the season on Saturday, but claimed career-high scores of 15.00 to tie for sidelined due to a concussion. ultimately came up just short in its efforts to first overall. Freshman Kris Done posted a After setting the school record on floor ex- win the meet. ercise last week, Matt McGrath led Iowa in The Gophers finished in second place out of four of the six events. the three teams with a score of 344.60. Penn DONE McGrath's best finish came on floor exercise State won the event with a score of 351.60 and again, as he placed tied for third. McGrath had Iowa finished in third place with a score of another solid routine, and scored a 14.90. Ben 333.80. Ketelsen also placed in the top-ten for Iowa, as The Gophers came out of the gate strong he scored a 14.20 to finish ninth. with a 58.40 score on the floor exercise, and Ketelsen also finished strong for Iowa on continued to put up high scores, including pommel horse, scoring a 13.60 to finish tied in putting up a score of 61.70 on the vault. but fourth place after coming back from an injury through each rotation, continued to come up last week. just behind Penn State throughout the night as A 14.60 score on rings from McGrath led the the Nittany Lions also performed well season-best 14.70 along with Blaize Monks to Hawkeyes on the event, as the score put throughout the meet. tie for fifth, while Sean Regan earned a 14.40 McGrath in fourth. Broderick Shemansky and The Gophers had several key performers in mark on the event. Angelo Bronzino also scored a 13.80 on the the meet. Freshman Zack Chase and Justin Ty Echard continued his success on pommel event. Morinishi each had career bests on the floor horse by claiming his fourth-consecutive event McGrath provided yet another top-five finish exercise with scores of 14.90. title. Echard performed a 14.80 for his fourth for Iowa, this time on vault. McGrath scored a The career high scores continued at the end pommel horse victory in 2011. Mike Behles 15.50 on the event. Ketelsen finished with a of the meet as three Gophers gymnasts set posted a career-high 14.10 for fourth place, score of 15.20. personal bests. Josh Wokurka and Ali Aleiou while John Laing notched a 13.80 for sixth The usual suspects each had a score of 14.50 on HB and Russell overall. came away with the top Dabritz had a best of 14.20. on HB. On rings Behles led the way with a season- finishes for Iowa on Other highlight performances include Adam high 15.20 followed by Onorato with a 15.10 parallel bars, as and Regan with a 14.80. The top score for McGrath scored a 13.90 Behles marks his first event win of the season. (7th) and Ketelsen fin- SCALLON Moving on to vault, Treleaven and Behles ished with a 13.70 finished tied for second overall with 15.70 (10th). scores. Done, a native of Auckland, New Zea- Shemansky continued land claimed a season-high 15.60, which tied to provide Iowa with for sixth on vault. solid routines on hori- On parallel bars freshman Misha Koudinov, zontal bar, as he tallied a McGRATH a native of Auckland, New Zealand, had the score of 14.20 to finish OSU high score with a season-best 14.60 for in 7th. Javier Balboa wasn't far behind with a second overall - his second-consecutive Top 3 14.10, and Ketelsen scored a 14.00. finish on the event. Behles and Done tied fifth overall with 13.90 performances. National Best team scores the past week. Done highlighted the high bar event for the Oklahoma 360.85 Buckeyes with a meet-high 14.90 - also a sea- Stanford 359.00 son high for the OSU rookie.