Minnesota Heads to Iowa for 2006 Big Ten Championships

This Week
The ninth-ranked Golden Gophers will travel south to Iowa City, Iowa, for the 2006 Big Ten Championship. The meet will take place in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and will begin at 7 p.m. on each night of the championship. The team competition will be on Friday evening, with the individual event finals on Saturday evening.

Gophers in the Team Rankings
The Gophers are ranked ninth in the March 20 edition of the GymInfo National Rankings. The Gophers have been ranked ninth for the entire season, with the exception of one week in which Minnesota was ranked 10th.

Lee in the National Rankings
Jake Lee is the only Minnesota gymnast listed in the top 20 in this week’s national rankings. Lee’s highest rank is No. 2 on the parallel bars, where he has a three-score average of 9.400. He is listed at No. 11 on the horse (8.727), and No. 20 on the vault (9.142). In the all around, Lee is ranked No. 3 in the nation with a three-score average of 52.992.

Big Ten Power
Every Big Ten men’s gymnastics team is ranked among the top 10 in the national rankings, with Ohio State leading the way at No. 3.

Minnesota’s History in the Big Ten Meet
The Gophers have won 20 Big Ten Team titles, with their last championship coming in 1995. The team has finished second at the Big Ten Championship 16 times.

Gopher gymnasts have won individual titles 118 times, with the most individual titles coming in the all around (29). Minnesota athletes have also won23 titles on the parallel bars, 18 on the high bar, 12 on the pommel horse, 10 on the rings, eight on the vault, seven in tumbling (no longer an event), six in the floor exercise, and five in Indian clubs (no longer an event).

Last Year at the Big Ten Championship
The Gophers finished in sixth place at the 2005 Big Ten Championship with a score of 216.400.

Guillermo Alvarez was Minnesota’s top scorer in four events in the team finals, the floor exercise (9.825), pommel horse (9.450), vault (9.500), and the high bar (9.175). Clinton Mays was the top finisher on the rings with a 9.500, while Jake Lee was Minnesota’s top performer on the parallel bars with a 8.975.

Guillermo Alvarez placed among the top eight in three events in the event finals, and wonthe vault title with a mark of 9.512. On the pommel horse, he placed third with a 9.637, and on the floor, he finished in eighth place with an 8.300.

High Bar Success
The Gophers had their best high bar score of the season against Wisconsin on March 4, earning a 35.250. Four Minnesota gymnasts earned career-best scores, and one had a season-high score. Jake Lee set a career-best mark with a 9.400 to win the event title. Sergei Dmitriev had his best score of the season on the high bar, with a 9.050 to place second. Steve Vuong also had a personal-best score in the event with an 8.900 to come in third on the high bar. Justin Meyer had his personal-best score in the meet against the Badgers, with an 8.550 to plave fourth. Frosh Eddie Campbell had the best score of his Gopher career with an 8.400 to place fifth.

Another Win for Lee
Jake Lee took first place on the vault (9.250) and the parallel bars (9.500) in the Gophers’ last competition. Lee has won at least one event title at every team competition this season.

Leading the Way
Jake Lee owns Minnesota’s best score of the season in the all around and five of six individual events. He also leads the team in average score in five events: horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and the high bar.

In the All Aournd for the First Time
Senior Justin Meyer competed in the all around against Wisconsin on March 4, marking the first all around performance in his Gopher career. Meyer earned scores of 8.500 on the floor, 7.850 on the horse, 8.800 on the rings, 8.400 on the vault, 8.650 on the parallel bars, and 8.500 on the high bar for a total score of 50.750.

Against Iowa, Meyer set a personal-best with a score of 51.400 in the all around. He also had a career-best vault score with a 8.850.

Super Soph
Sophomore Sergei Dmitriev owns the Gophers’ top floor score this season with a 9.050, which he earned against Michigan on Feb. 11. Dmitriev owns the fifth-best Gopher score on the parallel bars this season, and two of the team’s top five high bar scores.

Frosh Has Top Floor Average
Freshman Eddie Campbell has the team’s highest average score in the floor exercise, with an average of 8.671. Campbell is the only freshman to lead the team in average scoring in an event. Campbell owns the fifth-best Gopher score on the floor this season.

Quast Makes Gopher Debut
Alex Quast, a freshman from Vadnais Heights, Minn., competed for the first time in his Golden Gopher gymnastics career against Wisconsin on March 4. Quast finished fifth on the still rings with a score of 7.850. Against Iowa on March 10, Quast earned a 7.100 on the rings.

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