University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Finish Fifth at Big Ten Gymnastics Meet
4/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The University of Minnesota finished fifth in the team portion of the Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships, which are being held Friday and Saturday at St. John Arena on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Minnesota finished the team portion of the meet with a score of 346.500, just narrowly missing out on fourth place. The host Ohio State Buckeyes finished just ahead of the Gophers with a 346.950 score.
Illinois won the Big Ten Championship with a bit of a cushion, tallying a 359.700 score. The Fighting Illini had one of the top two team scores on five of the six events Friday night. Michigan was the runner-up with a total of 358.150. Penn State (347.300) was third. Iowa rounded out the meet with a tally of 337.800.
"We are all very disappointed in our finish tonight," head coach Mike Burns said. "As a team, we didn't perform with the precision and execution we have been showing over the past four weeks of the season. So you can imagine how tough it is for these guys right now."
For the Gophers, their Friday night score was well below the season average of 353.900 they put up during the regular season.
"We really need to compete with a little more of a swagger if we want to finish higher at the next team competition," Burns said of the NCAA Championship meet, which is coming up. "But for now, we will focus on performing at a higher level in the event finals tomorrow night."
The Gophers didn't have their best night of the season, only finishing better than fourth in one event. Minnesota was third on the floor exercise, led by a score of 15.300 from senior Adam Reichow.
The Gophers were better than their season average on the pommel horse, but couldn't score better than Thomas O'Brien's 14.100 on the apparatus. On the rings, Minnesota only entered five of the six possible student-athletes allowed. Sophomore Russell Dabritz led the way with a 14.400.
Reichow paced Minnesota on the vault with a solid 15.850 tally. In fact, the Gophers didn't count a score of less than 15.500 on the vault, traditionally one of their strongest events. Senior Aaron Fortunato led the way for Minnesota on the parallel bars with a 14.500, but the Gophers had to count two scores of less than 14.000 on the apparatus. Minnesota struggled somewhat on the high bar, as well. Fortunato scored a 14.300 on the bar, but was the only Gopher to score better than 14.000.
Burns said the performance of Reichow and fellow senior Colin McGuire were a couple bright spots, along with Fortunato's all-around performance. In the all-around, Fortunato finished fifth with a score of 86.150, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors
"Adam Reichow did a great job tonight," Burns said. "I believe he did make the finals on both events and he's looking to win both events tomorrow night. Another bright spot was Colin McGuire, who posted what I believe is a top-10 score on floor exercise and should be in the finals tomorrow. Colin's been doing great things for this team and I look forward to a solid set from him tomorrow."
Top scorers in each of the individual events on Friday night will advance to Saturday night's individual competition. Advancing for the Gophers are: Floor exercise - Adam Reichow, Colin McGuire; Pommel Horse - Thomas O'Brien; Vault - Adam Reichow; Parallel Bars - Aaron Fortunato.
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