Gymmen upset Michigan

By DARREN STEELE
Collegian Staff Writer

Randy Jepson wore a look of concern Friday night. His adversary, Michigan men's gymnastics coach Kurt Golder, shared the same expression.

Both men looked on at the final event of the evening, the high bar. Penn State barely clung to a 189.8-188.475 lead going into the last event.

"I was very concerned," said Jepson. "I knew it was anyone's meet. I was thinking we have to hit this one, we did, and we hung on."

No. 1 Penn State (4-0) came out on top of the final event, and it was just enough to hold off No. 2 Michigan (6-4) by a count of 226.5 to 226.175 Friday at Rec Hall.

Just enough may have been the key phrase. In a meet where both teams were expected to put on dazzling shows of gymnastic splendor, both teams swapped falls and blunders.

"I knew this would come right down to the wire," said Golder. "I figured the most consistent team would win."

Penn State led 38.1-37.9 after the first event. The second event was the pommel horse, an event that should have favored the Lions.

However, two of Penn State's top performers, Adam Benas and Jose Palacios, both fell on the event. Michigan had an opportunity to pull ahead, but Wolverine Daniel Diaz-Luong also took a tumble from the horse. Penn State's Brandon Stefaniak, a specialist, came through for the Nittany Lions.

"I knew that I had to do nothing special," said Stefaniak.

Stefaniak's performance, was anything but "nothing special," as he showed why he holds the No. 1 ranking nationally for the event. His 9.8 kept the Lions in the lead, 75.6-75.4.

The still rings may have been the only event that either team dominated. Penn State's Ron Roeder and Danny Beigel both posted a 9.75 to give the Lions some breathing room heading into the vault.

Both coaches would later agree that the vault was the turning point. Michigan's Josh Levin was the first to try and tame the event but came up short, as he misjudged his landing. This would prove to be a costly reoccurring mistake.

The best score the Wolverines could post was a 9.2 by Randy D'Amura. Penn State, however, received great performances from freshman Jose Palacios (9.4), sophomore Ted Johnson (9.5) and sophomore Tobias Ekman (9.4).

Ekman's performance may have been most valuable in Penn State's victory. He participated in every event, and gave four performances that significantly helped the Lions.

Both coaches thought their teams could learn something from this meet.

"We are going to have to get back to sticking our dismounts," said Golder. "We had some good performances. I was proud of my guys, they hung in there."

Golder had reason to be proud. Diaz-Luong, a Harrisburg native, won the all-around and narrowly beat out Ekman for the Gene Wettstone Award, given to the outstanding individual performer of the meet.

Jepson remained optimistic about the Lions' performance.

"Everybody has their ups and downs," said Jepson. "What I look for is if you can come back and get it in the end. We did that tonight."