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Big Ten Championships
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Gophers Finish Sixth, Wiskus Ties For All-Around Title at Big Ten Championships
4/3/2021 11:08:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
The University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team finished in sixth place at the 2021 Big Ten Championships with a team score of 395.950.
Senior Shane Wiskus ended up being named as the Big Ten Co-All-Around Champion after earning an all-around score of 84.700, tying Michigan's Cameron Bock for the title. Wiskus won three event titles on his way to earning the all-around title.
Following the competition, Wiskus was named as a member of the All-Big Ten First Team, while his teammate Crew Bold earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors. Wiskus was ultimately named the Big Ten's Gymnast of the Championships for his performance on the night.
Notable
In winning the Big Ten all-around title, Shane Wiskus is the first Gopher since John Roethlisberger in 1993 to earn the conference's all-around title. Wiskus was also able to capture his first career Big Ten event titles on floor exercise, parallel bars, and high bar. He marks the first gymnast since 2000 to win four event titles (including the all-around title) at the Big Ten Championships.
Quotable
"This was one of the closest Big Ten Champioships from 2nd to 7th place I've seen in a long time," head coach Mike Burns said. "In a meet like this you have to conserve as many tenths of a point as possible. When you finish only 2.050 points out of 2nd place and count five missed routines, you can't expect to finish near the top. We still have two weeks of life in our program and this team will fight to the very end."
"What can I say about Shane Wiskus? He finished with four Big Ten titles, what a night for the kid from Spring Park, Minn." head coach Mike Burns said. "He's in a class by himself and he helped this team tremendously tonight by virtue of the ice water in his veins. It's so nice to see what a great talent the University of Minnesota will be losing at the end of this historic season."
All-Around
A total of three Gophers competed for the conference all-around title, with senior Shane Wiskus finishing as the co-champion with a score of 84.700. Junior Mike Moran wound up finishing in tenth (78.150), while sophomore Crew Bold finished in sixteenth with a score of 74.600.
Floor Exercise
For the floor exercise, Shane Wiskus led the way for the Maroon & Gold by logging a score of 14.750 to capture the Big Ten title for the event. The Gophers also saw solid scores by Colton Dee (13.700), Mike Moran (13.650), and Victor Perez (13.600) to round out the rotation.
UMN: 66.850
Pommel Horse
The Maroon & Gold saw their lowest scoring rotation of the night come on the pommel horse, where Shane Wiskus led the team with his score of 13.400. The Gophers' next highest scores came from David Pochinka, who logged a 12.950 and freshman Noah Duran, who put up a 12.700.
UMN: 63.150
Still Rings
Sophomore Crew Bold put up the highest rings score of the meet for the team, with his score of 13.900 earning him a second place spot on the podium. Colton Dee narrowly missed the event podium with his score of 13.800, which put him in fourth place for the event. Shane Wiskus rounded out the top three scores for the Maroon & Gold with a 13.700.
UMN: 66.550
Vault
Minnesota had their highest scoring team performance of the evening on vault, with three gymnasts scoring above 14.000 for the team. Shane Wiskus put up the highest score of the night for the Gophers (14.400), and Mike Moran (14.300) and Ben Eyles (14.250) logged the team's other two highest scores. Despite these scores, the Maroon & Gold couldn't find the podium in a tightly contested event field.
UMN: 70.000
Parallel Bars
Shane Wiskus was able to capture his second Big Ten event title of the night on parallel bars, as the senior's score of 14.400 put him in the driver's seat to go on and win the event. Donte McKinney (13.200) and Crew Bold (12.850) were the next two highest scores for the team, but both finished in the middle of the pack with McKinney's score tying him for tenth and Bold's score tying him for seventeenth.
UMN: 65.750
High Bar
To finish up the evening, Shane Wiskus was able to earn his third ever Big Ten event title by beating out the rest of the competition on high bar with his score of 14.050. Both Crew Bold (12.900) and Donte McKinney (12.650), who were named All-Americans in the event by the CGA earlier this week, capped off the team's top three scores in the event.
UMN: 63.650
The Road Ahead
The Gophers will now return home to compete for a final time under their own roof, as they will host the 2021 NCAA National Championships April 16-17 at Maturi Pavilion.