University of Minnesota Athletics
Friday, April 5
Iowa City, Iowa
7:00 PM
University of Minnesota
at
Big Ten Championships
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
Photo by: Jessica Frankl
Gophers Take Fifth, Advance Six at B1G Championships
4/5/2019 11:41:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
Despite heading into the Big Ten Championships already owning a share of the regular season title, the Minnesota men's gymnastics team wasn't able to match it with a postseason honor after the team portion of competition on Friday evening.
The Gophers scored a 404.800 to place fifth for the second year in a row. The Penn State Nittany Lions ended up coming away with the trophy.
"When you have a competition like this, it's really easy to focus on the mistakes, but there were a lot of really good things that we did. As a complete team effort, it just came up a little short tonight," head coach Mike Burns said. "Not the finish we'd hoped, but love this group of guys, they're a hard-working bunch and they fought throughout, and you've got to appreciate that."
While the team didn't have the performance it was looking for, six Gophers stayed alive and placed within the top 10 on their respective events to compete another day. Sophomore and Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Year Shane Wiskus advanced on parallel bars (14.550), vault (14.550) and floor (13.900) after finishing fourth, fifth and 10th in the events, respectively. Senior Justin Karstadt will represent Minnesota in the pommel horse final after he placed fifth with a score of 14.200. Both Wiskus (81.550) and Karstadt (81.300) also competed all-around for the Gophers and placed fifth and sixth.
Minnesota's freshmen continued to shine, even on the big stage. Two advanced on two events and four rookies total will compete on Saturday. David Pochinka qualified for high bar, the Gophers' first event of the day, after delivering a 13.550, good to tie for seventh. He'll also compete on pommel horse, where he earned a career-best 13.850 to place 10th and squeak into finals. Fellow freshman Mike Moran led Minnesota off on floor and scored a 13.950 to move on to Saturday, and he also came in a five-way tie on vault with a score of 14.550 to qualify.
Freshman Ben Eyles rounded out Minnesota's three pieces of the tie for fifth on vault and will contend for the event title Saturday. Eric Nakamura was Minnesota's best finisher on floor with a 14.000, coming in seventh place and moving on to the first event final of his young career.
"We have a lot of finals tomorrow, so we'll take care of business tomorrow, and when we get back in town on Sunday, we'll have some work to do to solve some problems," Burns said. "Everybody has to be very willing to soul search and look in the mirror, and find out what their problems are and how to fix them."
The Big Ten Individual Event Finals will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network. Fans can also watch the meet via BTN2Go, with live stats, and can follow the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for coverage.
High Bar
Minnesota started the day out on high bar, where they scored a 64.800. Pochinka was the Gophers' top finisher with a score of 13.550 to advance to the event finals. Junior captain Timmy Kutyla just missed day two of competition and scored a 13.450 to tie for 11th.
Floor
The Gophers were able to gain some ground in the floor rotation as three Minnesota gymnasts cracked the top 10 and qualified for Saturday. Nakamura led the pack with a score of 14.000, while Moran closely followed in 8th place with a 13.950. Wiskus rounded out the event qualifiers in 10th place with a score of 13.900. Minnesota finished floor with a score of 67.700.
Pommel Horse
Minnesota headed to pommel horse in the fourth rotation after a bye in the third and scored a 66.850. Karstadt, ranked No. 11 in the event, kept up his dominance and was able to place fifth among some very tough competition to move on to finals. Pochinka was also able to hold his own and delivered a career-high 13.850 to earn a share of 10th place, and he advanced to Saturday on a tiebreak.
Rings
The Gophers were in last place as they moved over to rings, but weren't able to get ahead with the event. Rings was the only event in which Minnesota didn't see any gymnasts qualify for finals. Wiskus was the Gophers' best finisher in 12th place with a score of 13.750.
Vault
Minnesota started to claw its way back to the middle of the pack in the meet on vault. Ranked No. 4 on the event, the Gophers scored a 70.800, which was their best finish of the day at third among all teams. Moran and Eyles led off in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for Minnesota and tallied a pair of 14.450 scores, until Wiskus stepped up to close the rotation with another 14.450. All three shared a piece of fifth place and will compete vault on Saturday.
Parallel Bars
The Gophers came into the meet ranked No. 3 overall and No. 1 in the Big Ten on p-bars, and used it to their advantage to close the meet on solid footing. Wiskus had Minnesota's best finish all night on the event, coming in fourth place with a score of 14.550 to advance to finals. Pochinka and senior captain Shaun Herzog both scored 13.650 to tie for 15th and help the Gophers place fifth overall.
The Gophers scored a 404.800 to place fifth for the second year in a row. The Penn State Nittany Lions ended up coming away with the trophy.
"When you have a competition like this, it's really easy to focus on the mistakes, but there were a lot of really good things that we did. As a complete team effort, it just came up a little short tonight," head coach Mike Burns said. "Not the finish we'd hoped, but love this group of guys, they're a hard-working bunch and they fought throughout, and you've got to appreciate that."
While the team didn't have the performance it was looking for, six Gophers stayed alive and placed within the top 10 on their respective events to compete another day. Sophomore and Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Year Shane Wiskus advanced on parallel bars (14.550), vault (14.550) and floor (13.900) after finishing fourth, fifth and 10th in the events, respectively. Senior Justin Karstadt will represent Minnesota in the pommel horse final after he placed fifth with a score of 14.200. Both Wiskus (81.550) and Karstadt (81.300) also competed all-around for the Gophers and placed fifth and sixth.
Minnesota's freshmen continued to shine, even on the big stage. Two advanced on two events and four rookies total will compete on Saturday. David Pochinka qualified for high bar, the Gophers' first event of the day, after delivering a 13.550, good to tie for seventh. He'll also compete on pommel horse, where he earned a career-best 13.850 to place 10th and squeak into finals. Fellow freshman Mike Moran led Minnesota off on floor and scored a 13.950 to move on to Saturday, and he also came in a five-way tie on vault with a score of 14.550 to qualify.
Freshman Ben Eyles rounded out Minnesota's three pieces of the tie for fifth on vault and will contend for the event title Saturday. Eric Nakamura was Minnesota's best finisher on floor with a 14.000, coming in seventh place and moving on to the first event final of his young career.
"We have a lot of finals tomorrow, so we'll take care of business tomorrow, and when we get back in town on Sunday, we'll have some work to do to solve some problems," Burns said. "Everybody has to be very willing to soul search and look in the mirror, and find out what their problems are and how to fix them."
The Big Ten Individual Event Finals will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday and will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network. Fans can also watch the meet via BTN2Go, with live stats, and can follow the Gophers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for coverage.
High Bar
Minnesota started the day out on high bar, where they scored a 64.800. Pochinka was the Gophers' top finisher with a score of 13.550 to advance to the event finals. Junior captain Timmy Kutyla just missed day two of competition and scored a 13.450 to tie for 11th.
Floor
The Gophers were able to gain some ground in the floor rotation as three Minnesota gymnasts cracked the top 10 and qualified for Saturday. Nakamura led the pack with a score of 14.000, while Moran closely followed in 8th place with a 13.950. Wiskus rounded out the event qualifiers in 10th place with a score of 13.900. Minnesota finished floor with a score of 67.700.
Pommel Horse
Minnesota headed to pommel horse in the fourth rotation after a bye in the third and scored a 66.850. Karstadt, ranked No. 11 in the event, kept up his dominance and was able to place fifth among some very tough competition to move on to finals. Pochinka was also able to hold his own and delivered a career-high 13.850 to earn a share of 10th place, and he advanced to Saturday on a tiebreak.
Rings
The Gophers were in last place as they moved over to rings, but weren't able to get ahead with the event. Rings was the only event in which Minnesota didn't see any gymnasts qualify for finals. Wiskus was the Gophers' best finisher in 12th place with a score of 13.750.
Vault
Minnesota started to claw its way back to the middle of the pack in the meet on vault. Ranked No. 4 on the event, the Gophers scored a 70.800, which was their best finish of the day at third among all teams. Moran and Eyles led off in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for Minnesota and tallied a pair of 14.450 scores, until Wiskus stepped up to close the rotation with another 14.450. All three shared a piece of fifth place and will compete vault on Saturday.
Parallel Bars
The Gophers came into the meet ranked No. 3 overall and No. 1 in the Big Ten on p-bars, and used it to their advantage to close the meet on solid footing. Wiskus had Minnesota's best finish all night on the event, coming in fourth place with a score of 14.550 to advance to finals. Pochinka and senior captain Shaun Herzog both scored 13.650 to tie for 15th and help the Gophers place fifth overall.
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