Huskers To Compete At West Point Open

This Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31, the Nebraska men’s gymnastics team will head to West Point, NY for the 13th annual West Point Open. In 2004, West Point will play host to nine teams from around the country, featuring six that are nationally ranked, including second-ranked Penn State and the seventh-ranked rated Huskers. Competition is scheduled to begin with the event preliminaries on Jan. 30 at 6 p.m., followed by the event finals on Jan. 31, also at 6 p.m.

Despite their loss to No. Iowa, 217.750-213.975 in their home opener on Jan. 25, the Huskers made vast improvements in both their individual and team performances. Nebraska combined for 10 career bests, three of which came from junior Mace Patterson, and an overall team score (213.975) that nearly rivaled that of their 2003 high of 214.625.

This is Nebraska’s first trip to the West Point Open and in fact, it has been five years since the Huskers have encountered any of the teams they will compete against this weekend. In 1999, the Huskers met up with Penn State in Lincoln and walked away with a 228.775-226.875 win.

As the Huskers continue to set career-high marks and improve on their scores as a team, they can only look forward to increased success. At the West Point Open, Nebraska will once again rely heavily on senior Josh Rasile who currently holds several top-20 national spots, including sixth on the still rings, eigth on vault, and 13th on the floor exercise. Patterson’s consistent efforts will also no doubt be of importance to Nebraska, as he strives to work his way up the ranks in both the parallel bar and all-around standings where he now sits 11th and 13th, respectively,

Scouting The West Point Competitors
This weekend the Huskers will pit themselves against eight teams from throughout the country, five of which are ranked among the nation’s top-20 competitors. Leading the pack is second-ranked Penn State, which stands at a 3-1 record with its only loss coming from sixth-ranked Michigan last weekend. The Littany Lions also boast several top 20 ranked gymnasts, including Kevin Tan, who has held the number one spot on the still rings and parallel bar for the past two weeks with average scores of 9.817 and 9.192, respectively.

Army, host to the West Point Open, enters the meet with a 4-2 record and brings a strong set of up and coming gymnasts to this weekend’s competition. Highlighting the roster will be junior Brian Lee, who has remained unbeaten on the still rings this season, and recently set a career high mark of 9.85 this past weekend against Southern Connecticut. Lee is currently competing with Penn State’s Kevin Tan for the top spot in that event.

Although Navy has only competed in one meet thus far this season, they did walk away from that competition undefeated, giving them a 4-0 record. The Mids played host to three teams a few weeks ago for the annual Navy Open and overcame a 2.45 point defecit going into the final event (high bar), to win the meet with a final score of 200.15.

The 3-1 Temple Owls have enjoyed a mixture of disappointments and victories since the beginning of the 2004 season. Although the Owls have taken home three wins, their single loss came to William and Mary, a team far beneath them in the polls. Currently, Temple has landed one gymnast into the individual top 20, junior David Ramos. Ramos sits second nationally in the floor exercise with a score of 9.375.

No. 15 Springfield College comes into the West Point open after falling to Army, Navy, and Penn State, three of this weekends competitors, earlier in the season. Springfield senior Tim Goetz will lead the Pride after earning a trio of second place honors on the vault (8.95), parallel bars (8.45), and floor exercise (8.6) against Navy last weekend.

Three other non-ranked teams will make appearances at the West Point open this weekend, Southern Connecticut, MIT, and James Madison.

Patterson Leads Huskers With Four Personal Bests
Six Husker gymnasts combined for a total 10 career high scores this past weekend against Iowa. Leading the pack was junior Mace Patterson, who earned personal bests in three events; floor exercise (9.15), still rings (9.05), and parallel bars (9.15), on his way to a career high also in the all-around with a score of 54.20. Patterson now leads the 2004 Huskers in top scores on three of the six events, with highs on the floor exercise and vault going to senior Josh Rasile, and the parallel bars to sophomore Derric Wood.

Sophomore Ray Hacker also added several personal bests to his collection with career highs in the still rings (8.55) and high bar (8.35), an event he did not compete in until this year.

Junior Tony Burtle put up a pair of personal bests in the floor exercise (9.05) and parallel bar (7.9), while junior Adam Tietze, sophomore Nic Matthews, and freshman Paul Chumreonlert grabbed one apiece in the pommel horse (8.45), still rings (8.9), and parallel bars (8.8), respectively.

Husker Spotlight: Head Coach Francis Allen
In his third decade as the head coach of the University of Nebraska men’s gymnastics team, Francis Allen has created a dynasty unparalleled in the history of men’s collegiate gymnastics.

The staggering success over the past two decades, including eight NCAA team titles, seven runner-up finishes, 41 individual national titles, 11 Olympians, and 14 conference titles, only tells part of the story for Allen and his gymnasts.

Allen, who is also the director of Nebraska gymnastics and the College Gymnastics Association president, has been in charge of one of the most successful programs in all of college sports.

Over the past 23 seasons, his teams have finished either first, second or third 16 times at the NCAA Championships, and since 1979, the Huskers have earned eight national titles, five more than runner-ups Stanford, Ohio State and Oklahoma in that same span.

A three-time national coach of the year, Allen led Nebraska to 17 straight NCAA Championship appearances from 1979 to 1995, while the Huskers have competed in 22 of the last 28 NCAA Championships, advancing to the team finals on 16 occasions.

Allen has had the honor of coaching some of the greatest names in collegiate gymnastics.

Individually, his athletes have earned 163 All-America awards, won by 43 different gymnasts, and 15 different Huskers have captured 41 NCAA individual titles. Under Allen’s guidance, seven of his pupils, including Jim Hartung, (1980 and 1981); Wes Suter (1985); Tom Schlesinger (1987); Patrick Kirksey (1989); Dennis Harrison (1994); Richard Grace (1995) and Jason Hardabura (1999), have captured the NCAA individual all-around crown.

Allen was born in Cleveland, Ohio and received his degree in physical education from the University of Nebraska in 1967.