Huskers Place Third at the Rocky Mountain Open

Colorado Springs, Colo. - The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team placed third with a score of 320.450 at the Rocky Mountain Open on Saturday. 

Chase Mondi placed second on floor with a score of 14.00. Taylor Christopulos won high bar with a 14.10. Alex Nitache competed for the first time in his collegiate career in all-around and tied for second. All scores were career highs under the new NCAA scoring code. 

The first rotation was on parallell bars starting off with Cole Partridge scoring a 13.55, and the all-arounder Nitache notching a 13.85. Christopulos and Yanni Chronopoulos both scored a 13.10 to put Nebraska in third place behind Stanford and Oklahoma.  

The next rotation was high bar. Christopulos led Big Red with at 14.10, good for the event title, followed by Zac Tiderman with a 13.55, Nitache competed individually with a 13.45, Max Odden with an 11.75 and Partridge with an 11.05. 

On floor, Mondi led with a 14.00, and placed second. while York placed third with his score of 13.85. Nitache hit at career high of 13.65 placing ninth. Luke James scored a 12.55.  

On pommel horse, the Huskers excelled with Chronopoulos starting on pommel with a 13.75. Next up, Christopulos notched a 13.45 followed by Nathan York scoring a 13.35. Freshman Nik Tarca competed for the first time as a Husker and scored a 12.30. Nitache also competed and scored 14.30. Christopulos tied for eighth place, Chronopoulos placed sixth, Christopulos placed eighth, York was 10th and Tarca came in 20th.

The fifth rotation was rings. Chris Hiser started with a 14.15 and placed third. Chronopoulos placing fifth with a score a 13.800, James Friedman hit a 13.650 placing ninth and Christopulos in 12 with a 13.500. Nitache scored a 12.450 to put him in fourth. Nebraska was in third place heading into the final rotation. 

In the final rotation, on vault, Mondi placed second with a 14.35, followed by James’ 14.20 eighth place, Nitache scored 13.30 and Tiderman finished with 12.75. This gave Nebraska a team score of 320.450, placing third behind Oklahoma and Stanford.  

The Huskers head to Illinois for their first Big Ten Conference meet on Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. (CT). The meet will be available to stream on Big Ten Plus.