Lion gymnasts off mark at Big Tens
Missed routines weaken gymmen

By JENNIFER SCHOENFELD
Collegian Sports Writer

The members of the men's gymnastics team had high hopes as they traveled to the Big Ten championships at Illinois this weekend. But Lion Coach Randy Jepson was careful not to be too excited, even though his team has been ranked No. 1 for the last two weeks.

"We have to look at things realistically and say that there are a lot of teams out there that are every bit as good, if not better than we are," Jepson said last week.

The Lions witnessed the truth in that statement when they placed fourth with a team score of 227.2. Minnesota took first (229.83), followed by second-place Iowa (229.55) and third-place Ohio State (228.58). Illinois placed fifth (226.725), Michigan placed sixth (225.1) and Michigan State came in last (219.15).

"I was very disappointed," Jepson said. "We didn't come here to get fourth. I don't know what happened. We were ready for the meet but just didn't hit our routines."

The Lions missed 10 out of 36 routines.

"If you do that, you just can't win," Jepson said.

Sophomore Tom Ellefson said the Lions were a bit rough.

"We didn't have our best meet," he said. "There is room for improvement, and hopefully, we'll get it all together for the regionals."

In the team competition on Saturday, junior Tony Pansy had a solid meet. He tied for fourth on vault (9.4) and then tied for first on high bar (9.8) with teammate Lee Ricketts. Pansy finished third in the all-around with 57.65.

Sophomore Joe Roemer, who missed much of the season due to a wrist injury, scored 9.775 on the floor exercise.

"It makes coming back and making the Big Ten finals all worthwhile," he said.

Five Penn State gymnasts, including Roemer, competed in the individual finals yesterday. Ellefson tied for first on parallel bars (9.675) with Ohio State's Blaine Wilson.

"I was really excited because I was totally not expecting this," Ellefson said. "I just went up and did my routine as usual and really concentrated on sticking my landing."

Pansy competed in four events placing ninth on floor (9.5), third on high bar (9.75), seventh on pommel horse (8.95) and third on vault (9.3). Roemer placed fifth on the floor with 9.6. Ricketts and junior Brandy Wood tied for fifth on high bar with 9.7.