University of Minnesota Athletics
Saturday, March 2
Champaign, ILL.
2:00 PM
University of Minnesota
at
Illinois / Stanford
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
Photo by: Jessica Frankl
Gophers Take on Top-10 Stanford, Illinois
2/28/2019 6:04:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
Video Preview: Burn's Turn 2/27
Following an eventful outing at Nebraska, the Minnesota men's gymnastics team will again hop on the bus and head to Champaign, Ill. for the weekend to take on some of its toughest opponents of the season.
The No. 5 Gophers will go up against the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal and host No. 6 Fighting Illini for a tri-meet on Saturday, March 2 at 2 p.m.
"Illinois is a strong opponent, they beat us at Windy City so we'll be looking to take a little bit of a revenge ... They had to cancel a meet so it's actually been four weeks since they've competed, so that kind of brings an interesting twist. We're coming off of an okay showing with room to grow, and they're coming off four weeks of training," assistant coach Jordan Valdez said. "And Stanford's been throwing up some pretty high numbers in California, so they'll be another fun team to look at and see how we match up against them heading into the postseason."
Stanford is Minnesota's highest-ranked opponent since taking on No. 1 Oklahoma in the team's season opener. The Cardinal is ranked within the top five on every event and is No. 1 on pommel horse and parallel bars. Stanford also has the country's best all-arounder, Brody Malone, on its roster.
The Gophers have met the Illini once already this season, at the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 19. Illinois came home with the meet title and Minnesota placed third. Saturday's meeting with the Big Ten opponents will count as part of the Big Ten Regular Season Championship schedule, and the race for the first-ever title is still up for grabs.
"We're 0-1 right now and they're 1-1, so this will be a pretty critical meet for us to stay in the hunt for the Big Ten Regular Season Championship," head coach Mike Burns said. "This part of the season is all about deduction reduction, we've talked about this in the past, but it's also about the importance of every single tenth of a point that's out there. We have a lot of points to hang on to, but we have a lot of points to give away, so our goal is to hang on to as many of those as we can this weekend."
Minnesota is coming off of a second place finish at the Tumble N' Rumble meet at Nebraska last weekend. The Gophers scored a 403.600 and were largely led by underclassmen in the meet. Freshman Mike Moran took home the floor title (14.400) and third place on vault (14.550) and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his performance. Both scores were career highs and his floor score helped lead Minnesota to a new team season high of 70.100. Sophomores Colton Dee and Shane Wiskus took home the titles on rings (13.600) and parallel bars (14.250). The Gophers also earned seven podium finishes.
This weekend's meet will be streamed live via BTN Plus. Fans keeping up from home can also follow the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all updates and coverage. Coach Burns and Coach Valdez previewed Saturday's action and recapped the team's wild weekend facing Winter Storm Quiana on this week's episode of Burn's Turn, which can be found on Facebook!
Last Time Out
It all came down to the last event at the tri-meet in Nebraska. Unfortunately, it was a heartbreaker for Minnesota as the home Huskers edged the Gophers by just 1.05 to take the meet title, but there were plenty of bright spots. In addition to Moran, Dee and Wiskus's event titles, Moran took third on vault and Wiskus grabbed bronze on high bar (13.900). The underclassmen continued to shine as freshmen Danny Yoon and David Pochinka came in third place on rings (13.400) and pommel horse (12.900). Seniors Justin Karstadt and Vitali Kan rounded out the podium finishes with silver on horse and floor. Karstadt also shared third place with Yoon on rings.
Gophers in the Rankings
The No. 5 Gophers remain ranked in the top 10 on all six events: No. 10 on rings, No. 8 on high bar, No. 7 on pommel horse, No. 4 on floor and vault and No. 3 on parallel bars. Kan remains ranked on vault at No. 8. Wiskus is ranked on both bar sets: No. 3 on parallel bars and No. 6 on high bar, and is also ranked No. 5 all-around.
The Road Ahead
Minnesota will embark on one more road trip before returning home for two consecutive weeks. The Gophers will take on Ohio State and Nebraska for another Big Ten match-up on Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio.
New Year, New Leaders
The Gophers are anchored this season by a brand new set of captains. Chosen by their team and outgoing seniors, junior Timmy Kutyla and seniors Vitali Kan and Shaun Herzog are serving as this year's Gophers leaders. Kan is a two-time All-American on vault and is currently ranked No. 8 on the event, while Herzog had a breakout season last year that saw him finishing with six career-highs and All-American honors on rings. He isn't slowing down this year, especially coming off of a great Winter Cup performance that included ninth place overall and two other top 10 finishes. Kutyla is the only junior on the team and has scored on parallel bars and high bar in every meet this season.
Following an eventful outing at Nebraska, the Minnesota men's gymnastics team will again hop on the bus and head to Champaign, Ill. for the weekend to take on some of its toughest opponents of the season.
The No. 5 Gophers will go up against the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal and host No. 6 Fighting Illini for a tri-meet on Saturday, March 2 at 2 p.m.
"Illinois is a strong opponent, they beat us at Windy City so we'll be looking to take a little bit of a revenge ... They had to cancel a meet so it's actually been four weeks since they've competed, so that kind of brings an interesting twist. We're coming off of an okay showing with room to grow, and they're coming off four weeks of training," assistant coach Jordan Valdez said. "And Stanford's been throwing up some pretty high numbers in California, so they'll be another fun team to look at and see how we match up against them heading into the postseason."
Stanford is Minnesota's highest-ranked opponent since taking on No. 1 Oklahoma in the team's season opener. The Cardinal is ranked within the top five on every event and is No. 1 on pommel horse and parallel bars. Stanford also has the country's best all-arounder, Brody Malone, on its roster.
The Gophers have met the Illini once already this season, at the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 19. Illinois came home with the meet title and Minnesota placed third. Saturday's meeting with the Big Ten opponents will count as part of the Big Ten Regular Season Championship schedule, and the race for the first-ever title is still up for grabs.
"We're 0-1 right now and they're 1-1, so this will be a pretty critical meet for us to stay in the hunt for the Big Ten Regular Season Championship," head coach Mike Burns said. "This part of the season is all about deduction reduction, we've talked about this in the past, but it's also about the importance of every single tenth of a point that's out there. We have a lot of points to hang on to, but we have a lot of points to give away, so our goal is to hang on to as many of those as we can this weekend."
Minnesota is coming off of a second place finish at the Tumble N' Rumble meet at Nebraska last weekend. The Gophers scored a 403.600 and were largely led by underclassmen in the meet. Freshman Mike Moran took home the floor title (14.400) and third place on vault (14.550) and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his performance. Both scores were career highs and his floor score helped lead Minnesota to a new team season high of 70.100. Sophomores Colton Dee and Shane Wiskus took home the titles on rings (13.600) and parallel bars (14.250). The Gophers also earned seven podium finishes.
This weekend's meet will be streamed live via BTN Plus. Fans keeping up from home can also follow the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all updates and coverage. Coach Burns and Coach Valdez previewed Saturday's action and recapped the team's wild weekend facing Winter Storm Quiana on this week's episode of Burn's Turn, which can be found on Facebook!
Last Time Out
It all came down to the last event at the tri-meet in Nebraska. Unfortunately, it was a heartbreaker for Minnesota as the home Huskers edged the Gophers by just 1.05 to take the meet title, but there were plenty of bright spots. In addition to Moran, Dee and Wiskus's event titles, Moran took third on vault and Wiskus grabbed bronze on high bar (13.900). The underclassmen continued to shine as freshmen Danny Yoon and David Pochinka came in third place on rings (13.400) and pommel horse (12.900). Seniors Justin Karstadt and Vitali Kan rounded out the podium finishes with silver on horse and floor. Karstadt also shared third place with Yoon on rings.
Gophers in the Rankings
The No. 5 Gophers remain ranked in the top 10 on all six events: No. 10 on rings, No. 8 on high bar, No. 7 on pommel horse, No. 4 on floor and vault and No. 3 on parallel bars. Kan remains ranked on vault at No. 8. Wiskus is ranked on both bar sets: No. 3 on parallel bars and No. 6 on high bar, and is also ranked No. 5 all-around.
The Road Ahead
Minnesota will embark on one more road trip before returning home for two consecutive weeks. The Gophers will take on Ohio State and Nebraska for another Big Ten match-up on Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio.
New Year, New Leaders
The Gophers are anchored this season by a brand new set of captains. Chosen by their team and outgoing seniors, junior Timmy Kutyla and seniors Vitali Kan and Shaun Herzog are serving as this year's Gophers leaders. Kan is a two-time All-American on vault and is currently ranked No. 8 on the event, while Herzog had a breakout season last year that saw him finishing with six career-highs and All-American honors on rings. He isn't slowing down this year, especially coming off of a great Winter Cup performance that included ninth place overall and two other top 10 finishes. Kutyla is the only junior on the team and has scored on parallel bars and high bar in every meet this season.
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