Friday, April 3, 1998

Gymmen spring to regionals at UMass

By BRIAN LENNON
Collegian Sports Writer

When the Penn State men's gymnastics team heads into the NCAA East Regional Championships tomorrow at the University of Massachusetts, it will be hoping to avoid a collapse like it had two weeks ago at the Big Ten Championships.

Six teams and two groups of individual competitors will be at Curry Hicks Cage vying for three spots at the NCAA Championships to be held April 16-18 at The Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State, Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan and Illinois will be competing in both the team and individual competitions, as well as individual gymnasts from UMass, Temple, Illinois-Chicago and other schools.

Penn State gymnast Danny Beigel steadies himself on the horizontal bar. The Lions head to NCAA East Regionals Saturday at the University of Massachusetts. (Collegian Photo/Aimee C. Toberman - click for full size image)

March 21 in Ann Arbor, Mich., the Nittany Lions were cruising toward their first-ever Big Ten crown. Through four events -- the floor exercise, pommel horse, rings and vault -- the Lions executed every routine flawlessly.

That's when things came apart at the seams.

"The pressure got to us," Lion Danny Beigel said. "Our eyes got a little too big."

The slide began on the parallel bars. The team score for the event was a 37.9. The Hawkeyes, who will be competing against the Lions again this weekend, tallied a 38.85, almost a whole point more than Penn State.

Iowa, however, had three gymnasts earn marks of 9.7 or higher. Mike Dutka, who would go on to win the all-around, scored the Lions' highest mark with a 9.55.

Then on the horizontal bar, the Lions started falling faster. The 37.6 they earned was their lowest team score on any event. Iowa, meanwhile, scored a 38.5. Again, nearly one point more than the Lions.

Dutka (9.65) and captain Roy Malka (9.6) were the only bright spots in an event that included Adam Benas' 9.2, Tim Lashua's 9.15 and 9.1s turned by Eddie Seng and Beigel.

Beigel said his main goal at Big Tens was to prepare for the NCAAs. He said his teammates seemed to be in the same mental state.

"There's no sense of urgency around here," Beigel said.

Penn State coach Randy Jepson seems relaxed and optimistic about his team's chances this weekend. And after a second-place finish at Big Tens, the team has little else to prove.

"People understand that about us now," Jepson said. "That we're not just going to be in the top three, but we could win."

One person who understands is Iowa coach Tom Dunn. He was the beneficiary of the Lions' collapse, which resulted in his second Big Ten Championship.

"We're lucky," he said. "They messed up a little bit."

A little bit can go a long way.