University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Face Iowa and Nebraska on BTN
2/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 10 University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team will travel to Iowa City, Iowa to take on No. 9 Iowa and No. 11 Nebraska in conference action this weekend. The tri-meet is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. CT. The Meet will be televised on the Big Ten Netword on tape delay Sunday, Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. CT. You can watch live coverage of the meet on BTN Plus at BTN2go.com.
When They Met Last...
The Gophers will face the Cornhuskers for the second consecutive week following their at-home victory at last weekend's tri-meet, 429.900 to 422.050. The Maroon and Gold faced the Hawkeyes earlier this season at the Windy City Invitational where they finished fifth, just behind Iowa who nabbed fourth place.
At the Windy City Invitational, Gopher freshman Joel Gagnon made his collegiate debut with a score of 14.550 on floor while senior Steve Jaciuk claimed third on the parallel bars after scoring a 14.500. The highest team score came on vault with an overall total of 70.750. Seniors Ellis Mannon and Jack Metcalf contributed a 14.200 and 14.200, respectively. Mannon was the sole competitor in the all-around with a total score of 83.050, good for fourth place.
Hawkeye junior Doug Sullivan led all teams on the pommel horse with a score of 14.900 on the still rings while senior Will Albert earned a 15.00. To add to the high team placement on the night, sophomore Cory Paterson tallied a 15.100 on high bar.
Last Time Out
Last weekend, the Gophers hosted the UIC Flames and Nebraska Cornhuskers in their third home meet of the season. The Maroon and Gold earned its second victory and highest score of the season (429.900) to defeat both Nebraska (422.050) and UIC (402.600).
The Gophers claimed four of the events and fell short on floor exercise and vault by 1.1 and 0.55 points, respectively. Gagnon took second on the floor with an individual mark of 14.30. On the pommel horse, Mannon tallied a 14.40 and earned second place overall on the apparatus.
Nebraska claimed the vault with a team total of 71.900 narrowly edging out Minnesota's score of 71.350.
The Maroon and Gold shined on still rings as the team earned the top three individual scores and earned the highest team mark of the night. Senior Jack Metcalf tallied a 14.85 followed by classmate Jaciuk and junior co-captain Paul Montague. Jr., who earned 14.75 and 14.70, respectively.
The Gophers currently sit at 2-2 on the season and 1-1 in head-to-head Big Ten competition.
Opponent's Results
This past weekend, the Hawkeyes traveled to Champaign, Ill. as the No. 3 University of Illinois Illini hosted the Big Ten conference match-up. The Hawkeyes fell with an overall score of 424.500 as Illinois soared to a team score of 440.150.
Iowa freshman Austin Hodges earned a career high 14.450 on the pommel horse and junior Doug Sullivan tallied 14.850 towards the team's sole event title on the night.
Senior Cyrus Dobre-Mofid finished third on floor exercise with an individual mark of 14.750 and in this third straight week for the team, junior Jack Boyle posted a 14.900, placing him fourth overall on the event.
Gophers in the National Rankings
With their victory over UIC and Nebraska, the Gophers remain at No. 10 in the national rankings for the third consecutive week.
The top three spots are held by new No. 1 Penn State followed by Oklahoma and Illinois. This weekend's opponents occupy the No. 11 (Nebraska) and No. 9 (Iowa) spots.
Looking Ahead
Next week, the team as a whole will take a week off but select individuals will travel to compete in the Winter Cup Challenge hosted by USA Gymnastics in Las Vegas, Nev.
The following week, the Gophers will travel to Palo Alto, Cal., where they will face No. 4 Stanford University, No. 6 Berkeley and the national teams from Japan and Canada.
Follow the Gophers
To follow all of the action at this weekend's Big Ten tri-meet by following @GopherMGym on Twitter and Instagram. Fans can watch the meet on the Big Ten Network or on BTN2Go online.
Players Mentioned
