Gymnastics: Men's
Randy Jepson and Miguel Pineda earn awards before NCAA Championships
The Nittany Lions are already accumulating awards Wednesday in Norman, Okla. and they haven’t even competed yet.
Head coach Randy Jepson was awarded with the 2012 Central Region Coach of the Year, while senior captain Miguel Pineda was distinguished as the Nissan Emery Award finalist at the NCAA/CGA Men’s gymnastics award banquet.
Both Jepson and Pineda have long lists of accomplishments, especially in this season alone. Here’s a little background, along with (only some) of their accomplishments.
Randy Jepson
Bit of background:
-Penn State alumnae (1982)
-Captain of the Nittany Lions gymnastics team in his era and an All-American on still rings
-A Nissan-Award nominee as a senior at Penn State
-Posted a perfect 10.0 on still rings in 1983 at Rec Hall
-Was assistant coach to former head coach Karl Schier for six seasons prior to taking his current position as head coach
This year:
-Undefeated at home
-Won 14th consecutive West Point Open title
-Established two of the nation’s highest team scores
-Posted a program record team score of 360.600
-Placed third at Big Ten Championships
-Ranked No.1 in the nation on pommel horse and still rings
-Crowned two individual Big Ten champions: junior Scott Rosenthal on still rings and freshman Craig Hernandez on pommel horse.
Overall by the numbers:
-21st year as head coach
-3 National Championships
-2 Big Ten titles
-3-time National Coach of the Year
-2-time Big Ten Coach of the Year
-33 All-Americans
-102 honors
-16 individual NCAA title winners
-20 individual Big Ten champions
-2 Nissan-Emery award winners
Miguel Pineda
Bit of background:
-From Galloway, Ohio
-Junior National Team member (2004-2007)
-Biology major
-Brother, Pedro, competed on Ohio State’s men’s gymnastics team from 2005-2007
This year:
-Penn State’s first finalist for the Nissan-Emery award since 2009
-Ranked No.4 in the nation on still rings
-Consistent contributor to vault and parallel bars.
-Wayne Duke Postgraduate Award recipient
-Penn State’s Ernest B. McCoy Award recipient
By the numbers:
-2-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recipient
-3-time CGA First Team All-American Scholar Athlete
-3.98 GPA (top one-half percent of his class)
-Capital One Academic All-America Men’s At-Large First Team
- NCAA Elite 88 Award recipient
The No.2 Penn State men's gymnastics team will begin its road to the NCAA title with qualifiers on Thursday scheduled at 2 p.m. ET.