University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Illinois
Players Mentioned
Gophers Reach New Heights in Home Opener
1/24/2020 10:53:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
The Gophers opened their home season in monumental fashion on Friday night and defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini 402.800-400.900.
Junior captain Shane Wiskus won the all-around, floor and parallel bars titles for the second meet in a row and recorded the nation's highest all-around (84.600) and p-bars scores (15.100) this season. It was also Minnesota's highest individual parallel bars score since 2017. Wiskus added silvers on vault (14.250) and rings (13.950) as well.
His co-captain and Minnesota's only senior Timmy Kutyla won the first event title of his career with a score of 13.850 on high bar and claimed the bronze on parallel bars with a 13.850. Sophomore David Pochinka took second on p-bars with a personal best of 14.600 to sweep the podium for the Gophers.
Freshman Donte McKinney added his first top-three finish on vault with a score of 14.050 and junior Colton Dee took third on rings (13.650).
Sophomore Mike Moran also competed all-around for Minnesota and scored a career-high 78.050 for second place.
Notable
The Gophers scored 70.150 on parallel bars to edge Illinois by nearly seven points (63.650). It is the highest parallel bar score in the nation for any team this season, 1.85 points better than 2019 national runner-up Oklahoma. Each one of Minnesota's parallel bars workers stuck their routines and the team had three career highs in the rotation (Wiskus, Pochinka, Dee).
Quotable
"It was really an awesome night here in the Pavillion.The energy level was super high, great crowd, great competition, just a lot of really good gymnastics going on tonight. To come out with a victory against a really tough Illinois team was really heartening to see, and we had some adversity to deal with," Minnesota head coach Mike Burns said. "Big shoutout to the crowd, they were outstanding tonight. I would've hated to be a visiting team in Maturi Pavillion tonight."
Pommel Horse
Friday night's home opener for the Maroon & Gold started off with sophomore David Pochinka scoring a season-high 13.400 for fourth place. Wiskus followed up Pochinka for the Gophers, earning a 13.350 for fifth. Minnesota was able to round out its rotation on the pommels with a 12.600 from freshman Valen Watrous in his first career set in the event for seventh.
Rings
The Gophers followed up their performance on the pommel horse with an impressive rotation on the still rings that was spearheaded by an impressive 13.950 by Wiskus, a season-high for him that earned him a second place finish in the event. Fellow junior Colton Dee also logged a season-high in the event, posting a 13.650 and finishing third. Moran put together a career performance to finish off the event and tallied 13.200 for the Maroon & Gold.
Floor
Shane Wiskus was able to come away with the floor title for the second week in a row after he scored a season-high 14.650 in the event. Dee added a 13.050 for eighth place, while underclassmen Garrett Kasiski and Victor Perez both finished with 13.000 to tie for 10th.
Parallel Bars
Minnesota had a parallel bars rotation for the ages led by Wiskus, who earned the title with a score of 15.100, the first 15 score the Gophers have had since 2018. Pochinka also put together a solid performance for the Gophers, and landed a career-high 14.600 for the silver. Senior captain Timmy Kutyla capped off the night with a 13.750 and a third place finish, sweeping the event for the Maroon & Gold.
High Bar
Kutyla saw himself at the top of the high bar podium come the end of the night and finished with a 13.850. Wiskus chalked up another solid performance and earned a 13.300 in the event for fourth, while freshman teammate Donte McKinney capped the event off for the Gophers with a personal-best 13.200 for fifth.
Vault
The Illini held a slight lead heading to the last rotation, but the Gophers pulled out the win. Wiskus led the way for the team with a 14.250, for second place. McKinney also came up big for the Maroon & Gold on vault, putting up a score of 14.050 and earning the No. 3 spot in the event. To finish off the night and to help seal the Gopher victory, sophomore Mike Moran logged at 14.000, the third score of 14 or higher of the night for Minnesota in the event.
The Road Ahead
The Gophers hit the road again next week for a tri-meet with Iowa and UIC in Iowa City on Feb. 1. Minnesota then returns home for a dual meet with Washington on Friday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.