University of Minnesota Athletics
Saturday, March 23
Maturi Pavilion
2:00 PM
University of Minnesota
vs
Penn State / Iowa
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
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
/ Men's Gymnastics
Photo by: Keith Allen
Meet Preview: Gophers To Host Senior Day, Close Regular Season
3/20/2019 3:25:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
Video Preview: Burns Turn 3/19
The Minnesota men's gymnastics team has just one meet left on its regular season schedule: And the Gophers will get to compete with home gym advantage.
No. 6 Minnesota will host No. 5 Penn State and No. 8 Iowa on Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. at Maturi Pavilion. The Gophers are building off of a dual win against Air Force last weekend and will look to build on that momentum, as Saturday is also Minnesota's final meet in the Big Ten schedule.
"This is the meet we're going to hopefully put our top lineup in, which will probably be pretty similar to what we're putting in at the Big Ten Championships," head coach Mike Burns said. "In a meet like this, where you have a tri-meet and so much is on the line, every single tenth counts. The fight is going to be necessary from all three teams to prevail in the end. It's going to be intense and a lot of fun."
Minnesota and Penn State are currently 2-2 in conference, while Iowa has had a recent hot streak to push the Hawkeyes to 3-1. Two wins on Saturday could help the Gophers come away with the first-ever Big Ten Regular Season Championship crown.
"Penn State and Iowa have had incredible seasons. Iowa has just found a way to get wins in the column this year ... very solid team, very clean team, they hit a lot of routines, and that's the name of the game," Burns said. "Penn State has a few events where they have an advantage on us on start value, so we're going to make sure that in the events where we have the advantage on them, we make the most of those moments."
It will also be a busy promotion day at the Pav. Minnesota will be recognizing seven seniors post-meet for this season's Senior Day: Captains Vitali Kan and Shaun Herzog, Michael Harris, Justin Karstadt, George Khoury, Ben Winkel and redshirt Ryan Wangler. Saturday will also serve as Club Day, and club gymnasts can receive free admission to the meet when they pre-register. Other ticket info can be found via MyGopherSports.com.
Fans keeping up away from campus may watch the meet via BTN2Go or follow the live stats. Meet updates will also be provided by following the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Coach Burns and senior Michael Harris talked the win over Air Force, this weekend's action, and reminisced on their youth and club gym days on this week's episode of Burn's Turn, which can be found on Facebook!
Last Time Out
The Gophers returned to Maturi Pavilion for the first time on over a month last weekend for a St. Patrick's Day dual against Air Force. Minnesota was able to come out with a meet victory, which was largely led by its underclassmen and captains. The day's big story was freshman Garrett Kasiski appearing in the vault lineup for the first time in his career and scoring a career and team season high score of 14.900 for the event title. He also placed third on rings and was named Big Ten and CGA Freshman of the Week. Sophomore Shane Wiskus had another successful outing and took home the event titles on parallel bars and high bar, both with new career highs of 14.900 and 14.400, respectively. It was the third meet in a row that Wiskus set a new career high on high bar and he was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for the second consecutive week.
In addition to Kasiski's title, Mike Moran (14.400) and Ben Eyles (14.350) came in second and third place on vault for an all-freshman podium and freshman Eric Nakamura took the floor title (14.250), the second of his career. Senior captain Vitali Kan earned the pommel horse title (13.750), and freshman David Pochinka (14.200) and junior captain Timmy Kutyla (13.800) joined Wiskus on the podium on parallel bars for a Gophers sweep.
Gophers in the Rankings
Minnesota remains ranked No. 6 overall by Road To Nationals for the third consecutive week. The Gophers are ranked within the top 10 on each event: No. 9 on pommel horse and high bar, No. 8 on rings, No. 5 on floor, No. 3 on vault and No. 2 on parallel bars. Freshman David Pochinka has broken into the national parallel bars at No. 7, while Wiskus joins him at No. 3. Wiskus is also ranked No. 3 on high bar and remain's the nation's No. 1 all-arounder.
The Road Ahead
With Saturday serving as the last meet of the regular season, the Gophers will begin to look to postseason action. Minnesota will have a week off before heading to the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Iowa on April 5-6. The Gophers finished fifth as a team at last year's competition, and three gymnasts finished on the individual podiums, including Wiskus, who took third on high bar (14.100).
The Minnesota men's gymnastics team has just one meet left on its regular season schedule: And the Gophers will get to compete with home gym advantage.
No. 6 Minnesota will host No. 5 Penn State and No. 8 Iowa on Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. at Maturi Pavilion. The Gophers are building off of a dual win against Air Force last weekend and will look to build on that momentum, as Saturday is also Minnesota's final meet in the Big Ten schedule.
"This is the meet we're going to hopefully put our top lineup in, which will probably be pretty similar to what we're putting in at the Big Ten Championships," head coach Mike Burns said. "In a meet like this, where you have a tri-meet and so much is on the line, every single tenth counts. The fight is going to be necessary from all three teams to prevail in the end. It's going to be intense and a lot of fun."
Minnesota and Penn State are currently 2-2 in conference, while Iowa has had a recent hot streak to push the Hawkeyes to 3-1. Two wins on Saturday could help the Gophers come away with the first-ever Big Ten Regular Season Championship crown.
"Penn State and Iowa have had incredible seasons. Iowa has just found a way to get wins in the column this year ... very solid team, very clean team, they hit a lot of routines, and that's the name of the game," Burns said. "Penn State has a few events where they have an advantage on us on start value, so we're going to make sure that in the events where we have the advantage on them, we make the most of those moments."
It will also be a busy promotion day at the Pav. Minnesota will be recognizing seven seniors post-meet for this season's Senior Day: Captains Vitali Kan and Shaun Herzog, Michael Harris, Justin Karstadt, George Khoury, Ben Winkel and redshirt Ryan Wangler. Saturday will also serve as Club Day, and club gymnasts can receive free admission to the meet when they pre-register. Other ticket info can be found via MyGopherSports.com.
Fans keeping up away from campus may watch the meet via BTN2Go or follow the live stats. Meet updates will also be provided by following the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Coach Burns and senior Michael Harris talked the win over Air Force, this weekend's action, and reminisced on their youth and club gym days on this week's episode of Burn's Turn, which can be found on Facebook!
Last Time Out
The Gophers returned to Maturi Pavilion for the first time on over a month last weekend for a St. Patrick's Day dual against Air Force. Minnesota was able to come out with a meet victory, which was largely led by its underclassmen and captains. The day's big story was freshman Garrett Kasiski appearing in the vault lineup for the first time in his career and scoring a career and team season high score of 14.900 for the event title. He also placed third on rings and was named Big Ten and CGA Freshman of the Week. Sophomore Shane Wiskus had another successful outing and took home the event titles on parallel bars and high bar, both with new career highs of 14.900 and 14.400, respectively. It was the third meet in a row that Wiskus set a new career high on high bar and he was named Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for the second consecutive week.
In addition to Kasiski's title, Mike Moran (14.400) and Ben Eyles (14.350) came in second and third place on vault for an all-freshman podium and freshman Eric Nakamura took the floor title (14.250), the second of his career. Senior captain Vitali Kan earned the pommel horse title (13.750), and freshman David Pochinka (14.200) and junior captain Timmy Kutyla (13.800) joined Wiskus on the podium on parallel bars for a Gophers sweep.
Gophers in the Rankings
Minnesota remains ranked No. 6 overall by Road To Nationals for the third consecutive week. The Gophers are ranked within the top 10 on each event: No. 9 on pommel horse and high bar, No. 8 on rings, No. 5 on floor, No. 3 on vault and No. 2 on parallel bars. Freshman David Pochinka has broken into the national parallel bars at No. 7, while Wiskus joins him at No. 3. Wiskus is also ranked No. 3 on high bar and remain's the nation's No. 1 all-arounder.
The Road Ahead
With Saturday serving as the last meet of the regular season, the Gophers will begin to look to postseason action. Minnesota will have a week off before heading to the Big Ten Championships in Iowa City, Iowa on April 5-6. The Gophers finished fifth as a team at last year's competition, and three gymnasts finished on the individual podiums, including Wiskus, who took third on high bar (14.100).
Highlights: Gophers 4, Michigan 2
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