University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
NCAA Qualifying Rounds
Gophers Advance to NCAA Day 2
4/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
April 15, 2016 Results
COLUMBUS, Ohio - For the first time since 2007, the University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team will finish in the top six in the nation. The Golden Gophers placed second in the first session of NCAA Championships qualifying to advance to the second day of competition as a team.
Minnesota's team score of 426.400 finished behind No. 1 seed Oklahoma (441.200) and ahead of Penn State (423.950) and Nebraska (423.550). The Gophers scored a session-best 73.150 on Floor Exercise to close the meet, and the session's second best score of 74.100 on Vault.
"I'm super pleased," head coach Mike Burns said. "We have a couple of things to work on between now and tomorrow, but right now it's not really the physical work. It's just the mental work."
Minnesota had top individual performances in multiple events. Sophomore Jalon Stephens tied for the best High Bar score with a 14.950. Junior Zach Liebler tied for first on Vault with a 15.200, and added the second-best Floor Exercise score at 15.250. Senior Paul Montague had the Gophers' top scores on Parallel Bars (14.700), Still Rings (14.450) and Pommel Horse (14.250).
The Gophers were in fifth place with a score of 136.800 after the first two rotations, starting with Pommel Horse (68.800) and Still Rings (68.000).
"We planned to start on Pommel Horse, which is a tough event," Burns said. "It's a nerve-wracking event. We got it out of the way. We had a little struggle there. …Our last four events were our best four events. We went to the Vault and that's where we started to pick things up."
They moved up one spot to fourth with their 74.100 on Vault, which is the third-best team score for the program since the scoring system changed in 2013. In addition to Liebler's top vault, sophomore Yaroslav Pochinka's 15.150 tied for the third-best score. Freshman Justin Karstadt (14.950), sophomore Alex Wittenberg (14.650) and freshman Vitali Kan (14.150) rounded out the team scoring.
After turning in a score of 70.700 on the Parallel Bars, Minnesota moved into second through four rotations. Montague's 14.700 ranked fifth out of all individuals in the session. Sophomore Tristan Duran's 14.450 was seventh.
"We had one miss on P-Bars but the rest of the guys did a couple of great pick-me-up routines and got us back in the mix," Burns said.
The Maroon and Gold maintained second the rest of the way. Stephens' High Bar routine led the Gophers as they scored 71.650 as a team in the fifth rotation.
Floor Exercise sealed the Gophers spot in the top three. Liebler closed out the scoring lineup with his team-high event score. Sophomore Joel Gagnon (14.700) and Kan (14.650) had the eighth and ninth scores on Floor for the meet. Wittenberg (14.450) and Duran (14.100) contributed to the team's 73.150.
Duran (84.900) and Karstadt (84.250) finished third and fifth in the All-Around, respectively.
"Not every routine was perfect," Burns said. "When you look around the gym, not every other team's routines were perfect. You've got to fight to the end, and fight for every single 10th. If you get that stuck dismount bonus, that's a huge swing, and we had a fair number of those tonight. I think that helped a lot."
Saturday's finals will begin at 6 p.m. Central Time. Links to live video and results can be found here.
Players Mentioned
