University of Minnesota Athletics
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Minnesota Falls to Ohio State in Top 10 Matchup
2/6/2021 9:46:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
The No. 7 ranked Gopher men's gymnastics team came up short in their first road meet of the season, as they fell to No. 3 ranked Ohio State 401.050-387.250 on Saturday night in Columbus. The Maroon & Gold will now prepare for another road trip next weekend as they travel to Lincoln to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers next Saturday.
Notable
With a career high score of 13.050, sophomore Victor Perez was able to capture his first career event title with the Maroon & Gold on high bar Saturday night. This marks back to back weeks that a Gopher has won the high bar individual title, with Donte McKinney winning the event title last weekend against Iowa.
Quotable
"We lost. I'm not happy about that," head coach Mike Burns said. "What I am happy about is that we have a group of guys who continue to put their best foot forward in spite of current circumstances. The biggest area we need to improve upon is the #5 and #6 spots in the lineup on each event. These routines just need to improve in order for us to start pushing the 400 point threshold."
All-Around
Mike Moran was the only person to compete in all-around for both teams, and was able to earn a new career high of 79.000. Moran's previous all-around career high was a score of 78.050 against Illinois last season.
Floor Exercise
Colton Dee led the way for the Gophers in the floor exercise event with a career high 14.050, which was good enough for the second best score of the evening in the event. Mike Moran was also able to log a score of 13.750, but it wasn't enough to get past the Buckeyes team score of 69.000 on the floor.
Pommel Horse
The Gophers were able to put together a solid performance on pommel horse Saturday night with Henry Meeker earning a personal best 13.300 in the event, the highest score for the team in the event so far this year. Freshman Noah Duran was able to mirror his score from a week ago by putting together a 12.900 in the event.
Still Rings
The Maroon & Gold saw yet another student-athlete earn himself a new career high, with Garrett Kasiski's routine on rings giving him a 13.400 score, just outside of the top three. Henry Meeker sat right behind his teammate with a score of 13.250, but again the Gophers fell short of beating out Ohio State for the team and individual event titles.
Vault
Minnesota's best performance of the night came on vault, with Mike Moran receiving a share of the individual event title for his 14.500, which tied him with Ohio State's Angel Leon. Additionally, junior Ben Eyles finished the day tied for the third highest score of the night with the former vault All-American putting up a 14.350. These scores, alongside career highs by both Tyler Davis and Andrew Hyde, still put the Gophers just shy of Ohio State in the event with the Buckeyes edging out a 70.900-70.450 win in the event.
Parallel Bars
On parallel bars for the Gophers, sophomore Crew Bold finished the night with the highest score for the team and a new personal best of 13.650, which tied him for third in the individual event scores. With the Buckeyes having five of the top six scores in the event, they went on to win the event over the Maroon & Gold.
High Bar
To finish out the meet and the night for the Gophers, sophomore Victor Perez was able to stand alone as the high bar event title winner with his career best score of 13.050. This is the second straight week that someone from Minnesota has won the high bar title, with Donte McKinney winning it last week against Iowa. Even with Perez getting his first career event title, the Buckeyes were still able to prevail on the team scoresheets, as they captured their sixth event title of the night 62.550-61.850.
The Road Ahead
The Gophers are set to travel to Lincoln, Neb. next weekend to battle the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday Feb. 13 at 2:00 p.m. CST. Following their meet with Nebraska, the team will potentially take part in a virtual competition on Friday Feb. 19 with the opponent and time TBA.