Gophers Pull Off Comeback to Advance to NCAA Team Championships

The University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team punched their ticket to the team championships tomorrow at Maturi Pavilion following a third place finish in session two of the NCAA Qualifiers tonight with a score of 404.623. The Gophers were able to narrowly beat out Penn State (402.356) and Iowa (401.120) to secure the last qualifying spot of the session.

Senior Shane Wiskus helped lead the Maroon & Gold into tomorrow's competition by logging a new career high all-around score of 86.464 and capturing three event titles on the night. Wiskus also logged a new career high floor exercise score of 15.100, which ranks as the highest score in the event in the whole nation this season.

What a time for your career high, Shane Wiskus.

He posts a 15.100 on the floor - the highest score this year in the nation! pic.twitter.com/smrkgH92bP
— Minnesota Men's Gym (@GopherMGym) April 17, 2021

Notable

With a team score of 404.623, the Gophers set a new season-high team score tonight to help advance to tomorrow's team finals. The team's last appearance in the team event finals was in 2018, where the team finished in 2nd place overall in the nation.

Quotable

"I'm just so proud of these guys, they rallied those last two events and got the job done," head coach Mike Burns said. "After pommel horse and rings things were looking a little bleak, but we knew that there was a lot of gymnastics left. To make the comeback and to make the memories that these guys made tonight for Gopher Athletics and Gopher Gymnastics, I don't know if you could've written a better script."

All-Around

Minnesota had two gymnasts compete in the all-around competition in the NCAA Qualifiers in Shane Wiskus and Mike Moran. Wiskus finished with a new career high score of 86.464 which earned him first on the night, while Moran's score of 78.498 was good enough for him to finish eighth.

High Bar

The Maroon & Gold started their evening off on high bar, where the team saw sophomore Donte McKinney lead the charge by posting a new career high of 14.200. Shane Wiskus (14.066) and Crew Bold (13.566) rounded out the team's top three, and both McKinney and Wiskus finished on the event podium for the evening.

UMN: 67.464

Floor Exercise

The Gophers then moved to floor exercise, where Shane Wiskus logged the highest score of the night and year of all gymnasts in the nation with a career high 15.100. Colton Dee then posted a 13.866, alongside Mike Moran's 13.700 to give the Maroon & Gold a respectable score in the event heading to their third rotation.

UMN: 68.832

We could watch Shane on the parallel bars all day.

Literally, all day. pic.twitter.com/3nNPpbDTlI
— Minnesota Men's Gym (@GopherMGym) April 17, 2021

Pommel Horse

Minnesota's lowest team score of the night came on pommel horse, where Shane Wiskus' season high score (13.566) was the peak for the Gophers, while fellow captain Henry Meeker (13.133) was also able to crack the 13-point threshold.

UMN: 64.098

Still Rings

The Gophers once again saw Shane Wiskus put up the highest score for the team, this time on still rings as his score of 14.366 earned him second place on the evening. Henry Meeker followed suit by putting up a score of 13.233, and Mike Moran's score of 12.900 helped put the Maroon & Gold within striking distance of Penn State for third place in the meet.

UMN: 65.999

Vault

Logging their highest team score in the event for the whole year, Minnesota was able to leapfrog Penn State to take third place thanks in large part to a massive 14.766 vault by Shane Wiskus that earned him the event title. The rest of the Gopher rotation mirrored this success, as Ben Eyles (14.466), Mike Moran (14.300), Donte McKinney (14.200), and Colton Dee (13.966) pushed the Maroon & Gold past the Nittany Lions.

UMN: 71.698

Parallel Bars

To cap off the night, the Gophers went to parallel bars, where solid scores by Donte McKinney (13.200) and Crew Bold (13.066) gave them just the buffer they needed to start things off. It eventually came down to the team's anchor, Shane Wiskus, who needed a score of 12.800 in order to put the team through. Wiskus went on to score a 14.600, pushing the Gophers through to tomorrow and winning the event title in the process.

UMN: 66.532

The Road Ahead

The Gophers will have a quick turnaround as now tomorrow, their season will wrap up by taking part in the NCAA team, event, and all-around championships. The meet will begin at 7:00 p.m. CDT at Maturi Pavilion and will be televised on BTN.

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Players Mentioned

Crew Bold

Colton Dee

Ben Eyles

Donte McKinney

Henry Meeker

Mike Moran

Shane Wiskus