University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Coaches, Pochinka Receive Awards
4/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
COLUMBUS - The University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team claimed a trio of awards at the CGA/NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships Banquet and Awards Ceremony on Thursday night.
Head coach Mike Burns was named Central Region Head Coach of the Year, Russ Fystrom and Kostya Kolesnikov shared Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year honors and sophomore Yaroslav Pochinka received the NCAA's Elite 90 Award. Sophomore Alex Wittenberg served as the event's student-athlete speaker and Burns introduced a number of award winners.
Burns is in his 12th season as Minnesota's head coach, while Fystrom is in his 34th as an assistant and Kolesnikov in his 11th. Under this staff, the Gophers finished third at the 2016 Big Ten Championships before heading to the NCAA Championships. Minnesota had two All-Big Ten First Team selections in All-Around with sophomore Tristan Duran and freshman Justin Karstadt. Senior Danny DiBenedetto was selected to the Second Team on High Bar.
The 2015-16 Gophers won five meets during the season. The team set a new program team record with a score of 438.500 against Air Force and notched a program-record 76.650 on Floor against UIC. Junior Zach Liebler (Floor Exercise) and Duran (Parallel Bars) set new program event records during the year. Minnesota boasted several gymnasts consistently in the top-10 rankings throughout the season.
The Elite 90 Award which Pochinka received recognizes one athlete in each sport reaching the pinnacle of excellence in both competition and academics. A Minnesota gymnast has claimed this honor in three of the last four years, as Nathan Fortunato did so in 2013 and 2014.
Pochinka holds the top cumulative grade point average of any NCAA Championships competitor in men's gymnastics. The Plano, Texas native has a 3.93 GPA as a neuroscience major and psychology minor. The sophomore earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition earlier this season and last year, he received the Gophers' Academic Excellence Award.
Pochinka has achieved high academic honors all while earning a reputation as one of the NCAA's top competitors on Vault this season. He has reached as high as No. 1 in the national Vault rankings and enters the NCAA Championships ranked third. Pochinka placed first on Vault at four meets during the season.
Wittenberg addressed the audience following dinner. The Gophers sophomore talked about the importance of gymnastics in his life and the honor to have the opportunity to compete at the collegiate level.
###
