Huskers Place Third at Rocky Mountain Open

Colorado Springs, Colo.-The No. 9 Nebraska men's gymnastics team opened their 2012 campaign with a third-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday. Sophomore Eric Schryver tied for the parallel bar event title to lead the Huskers.

NU's team score of 333.300 trailed No. 1 Oklahoma (343.700), who captured their 13th-straight Rocky Mountain Open title. No. 11 Air Force placed second (333.300), while NU finished ahead of Arizona State (314.100) and Washington (248.100). Several athletes from the U.S. Olympic Training Center competed as well, but their scores did not count for finishes.

"For the first meet of the year, we did well," Head Coach Chuck Chmelka said. "We were sharp, we were clean and we hit really well. Overall, I'm happy on how they did on the first five events."

The Huskers performed well throughout most of their rotation but struggled in their final event, floor exercise. NU's difficulties in the event would enable Air Force to slip ahead and narrowly take the second-place team finish.

"Our last event of the evening was floor and we missed four out of six routines, which cost us second place," Chmelka said. "The other misses in events were just little slip-ups. That's not any excuse. We need to get better next week."

Eric Schryver had a strong night on parallel bars, tying OU's Chris Stehl for the event title with a 14.500. Schryver also contributed a 14.200 on pommel horse, good for second place overall.

Junior Wyatt Baier also had a strong performance on vault, claiming second place with a score of 14.800. For the second consecutive year, Baier's vault score was the highest of any Husker performance at the Rocky Mountain Open.

Freshmen Grant Perdue, Gabriel Jolley and Hayden Henrioulle made their collegiate debuts on Saturday night. Perdue had a solid evening for the Big Red, seeing action in both floor and vault while notching NU's second-highest vault score (14.400).

The Huskers will return to Lincoln next weekend to take on Air Force at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln. The meet is slated for a 1 p.m. start time on Jan. 22.

Floor Exercise
Will Eastmann: 14.00
Wyatt Aycock: 13.60
Mark Ringle: 13.30
Grant Perdue: 13.30
Andreas Hofer: 12.60
Hayden Henrioulle: 12.40

Pommel Horse
Eric Schryver: 14.200
Wyatt Aycock: 13.800
David Jacobs: 13.00
Gabriel Jolley: 12.50
C.J. Schaaf: 12.20
Donovan Arndt: 11.20

Still Rings
C.J. Schaaf: 14.50
Donovan Arndt: 14.30
Wyatt Baier: 14.20
Andreas Hofer: 13.80
Robbie Kocks: 13.40
Eric Schryver: 12.30

Vault
Wyatt Baier: 14.80
Grant Perdue: 14.40
C.J. Schaaf: 13.70
Gabriel Jolley: 13.70
Andreas Hofer: 13.20
Will Eastman: 13.20

Parallel Bars
Eric Schryver: 14.50
Andreas Hofer: 14.30
David Jacobs: 13.70
C.J. Schaaf: 13.60
Wyatt Aycock: 13.50
Mark Ringle: 13.20

High Bar
Will Eastman: 13.70
Eric Schryver: 13.60
David Jacobs: 13.60
Conner Stillwell: 13.20
Micah Christensen: 10.20
Mark Ringle: 0.00