No. 9 Huskers Finish Fourth at MPSF Championships

Lincoln, <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Neb. ? The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team finished fourth with a team score of 337.750 at the 2008 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in front a crowd of 259 at the DevaneySportsCenter on Saturday afternoon.<?xml:namespace prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"?>

No. 2 Oklahoma captured the team title for the fourth consecutive year with a score of 359.150. No. 1 Stanford finished second with a score of 357.200, while No. 4 California came in third (356.050) and No. 15 Air Force placed fifth (328.500).

Nebraska’s T.J. Schmidt was the only Husker to make the top-three in the event standings with a third-place finish on parallel bars with a career-high mark of 15.40. Sophomore John Robinson was also the only gymnast to compete in the all-around for Nebraska as both senior Stephen T?trault and sophomore Kyle Shanahan are out with injuries.  

“When (Kyle) Shanahan went down on us in practice it kind of hurt us,” Nebraska Head Coach Francis Allen said. ”I tried to tell the guys not to worry about coming out and hitting a team-high score because we didn’t have the personnel for it. I told them to concentrate on what they’ve done all season long and to do their routines like they did in practice, but you can’t put four guys up on high bar and expect them to hit. That’s crazy.”

“Once you lose momentum, you can sense it,” Allen said. “We got the momentum back on rings and vault, but it was too late to really do much. The scoring was really hard and the judges were instructed to judge hard. We just could not get going. We need to put this behind us and get ready for the NCAAs.”

The Huskers started the meet off on the parallel bars, one of their strongest events of the year. Nebraska put together a team score of 58.50, while Schmidt was the stand-out on the event, posting a career-high score of 15.40 for third place. Robinson also set a new career-high of 14.60 on the event. After one rotation, Oklahoma led the meet with a score of 64.150, with California in second (59.100), Air Force in third (58.600), Nebraska in fourth (58.500) and Stanford in fifth (54.400).

NU was unable to pull together a full lineup on high bar in the second rotation. The Huskers posted a score of 50.10, which is seven points lower than their highest high bar score of the season. After rotation two, Oklahoma kept the lead with a score of 124.600, Air Force moved into second (118.100), Cal was in third (115.350), Stanford was fourth (115.00) and Nebraska fell to fifth (108.600).

Nebraska moved to floor exercise in rotation three and notched a rocky score of 56.250, nearly three points lower than their season-high score. Freshman David Spitdowski led the Huskers on the floor exercise with a score of 14.40. At the end of the third rotation, California took the lead with a score of 191.600, while Oklahoma fell to second (180.150), Stanford was in third (178.400), Air Force moved to fourth (172.750) and Nebraska remained in fifth (164.850).

The Huskers struggled again on pommel horse in the fourth rotation, only notching a score of 51.35, which is seven points lower than their season-high. T?trault was the stand-out on the event, posting a score of 14.10. After four rotation four, Oklahoma regained the lead with a score of 242.100, while Cal battle in second (238.550), Stanford remained in third (238.500), Air Force stayed in fifth (222.550) and Nebraska was in fifth (216.200).

After four rocky rotations, NU regained momentum on the still rings in the fifth rotation. Freshman Anthony Ingrelli’s career-high score of 15.50 helped the Huskers set a new team-high score of 59.65 on the event. Ingrelli finished fourth in the event. Sophomores Garret Durst and John Robinson also posted career-high scores of 14.45 and 14.70, respectively. Heading in to the last rotation, California was in the lead with a score of 300.300, while Oklahoma was in second (298.450), Stanford was in third (295.300), Air Force remained in fourth (279.450) and Nebraska stayed in fifth (275.850).

Nebraska ended the meet on vault, historically NU’s best event of the season. The trend held true as the Huskers posted a score of 61.90 on the event. Spitdowski led the Huskers with a score of 15.60. Freshman Bear Danley tried the event for the first time this season and posted a score of 15.25. However, the late surge was not enough to place the Huskers in the top-three teams.

Nebraska’s score of 337.750 from the MPSF Championship will be doubled and added to its modified three-score of average of 345.550. The average of those two marks will then determine NU’s NCAA qualifying average and decide if the Huskers advance to the national championships, April 17-19, at Palo Alto, Calif. Nebraska should learn its fate for the NCAA Championships sometime early next week.

Team Results                                        Score
1. Oklahoma                                          359.150
2. Stanford                                            357.200
3. California                                           356.050
4. Nebraska                                          337.750
5. Air Force                                           328.500

 

All-Around Results                                 Score
1. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma                90.50
2. David Sender, Stanford                       89.55
3. Greg Stine, Air Force                          86.40

 Individual Event Results

Floor Exercise                                       Score
1T. David Sender, Stanford                      15.80
      Steven Legendre, Oklahoma             15.80
3. Josh Dixon, Stanford                          15.60   

Pommel Horse                                       Score
1. Tim McNeill, California                        15.10
2. Jason Laughton, Oklahoma                 14.45
3. Kyson Bunthuwong, California             14.30                            

Still Rings                                             Score
1. Jonathan Horton, Oklahoma                16.00
2. Bryant Hadden, Stanford                     15.70
3. Tim Gentry, Stanford                          15.55

Vault                                                     Score
1. David Sender, Stanford                       16.40
2. Chris Brooks, Oklahoma                     16.15
3. Steven Legendre, Oklahoma                16.10

Parallel Bars                                          Score
1. Tim McNeill, California                        15.80
2. Colin Christ, California                        15.45
3T. T.J. Schmidt, Nebraska                  15.40
    Bryant Hadden, Stanford                     15.40

High Bar                                                Score
1. Kyson Bunthuwong, California 14.65
2. Josh Dixon, Stanford                          14.45
3. David Sender, Stanford                       14.40