No. 3 Ohio State to Compete at No. 8 Illinois Sunday – Ohio State Buckeyes
1/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | General, Men's Gymnastics
Jan. 24, 2014
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 3 Ohio State men’s gymnastics team will compete in the first of two Big Ten regular season dual meets when it faces No. 8 Illinois Sunday afternoon at Huff Hall at 3 p.m. ET. The meet is scheduled to air on BTN on delay.
LAST TIME OUT
No. 4 Ohio State competed at the Windy City Invitational, closing out the competition in a tie for second place with No. 5 Illinois. The Buckeyes earned a final overall score of 436.050 to finish the season opening meet tied with the Fighting Illini for the second consecutive season.
The team set Ohio State records on pommel horse and vault, earning overall scores of 74.150 and 75.100, respectively. Redshirt senior Michael Newburger and junior Larry Mayer set NCAA and Ohio State records on pommel horse (16.250) and vault (15.800), respectively, to each win individual event titles while junior co-captain Drew Moling tied his career-high 15.500 on rings and senior Misha Koudinov tallied a 15.150 on parallel bars, also claiming individual event titles for the Buckeyes.
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
Illinois enters competition Sunday ranked No. 8 in the country with an average score of 424.575. The Illini have participated in two meets so far this season, defeating UIC in their first meet of the year and tying for second with Ohio State at the Windy City Invitational.
As a team, the Illini currently rank No. 7 on pommel horse (69.650), rings (71.975) and vault (73.150) and No. 8 on parallel bars (71.150) and floor exercise (70.650). Individually, Illinois is led by freshman Chandler Eggleston, who ranks No. 2 on vault (15.225) and No. 4 (15.075) on floor exercise. Other top performers include C.J. Maestas who ranks No. 3 on rings (15.500), Fred Hartville who ranks No. 5 on vault (15.125), Joey Peters who holds the No. 6 spot on parallel bars (15.000) and Jordan Valdez who ranks No. 4 on high bar (14.900).
BUCKEYES IN THE RANKINGS
TEAM
The Buckeyes moved to No. 3 in the latest GymInfo National Rankings, and currently rank within the Top 10 on five events. Ohio State is No. 1 on pommel horse (74.150), vault (75.100) and high bar (72.900), No. 5 on rings (72.350) and No. 7 on parallel bars (71.900). The team ranks at No. 11 on floor exercise (69.650).
INDIVIDUAL
Newburger leads a group of four Buckeyes ranked on pommel horse, as he is currently No. 1 on the event (16.250). Behind Newburger, freshman Sean Melton ranks No. 5 (15.000), freshman Jake Dastrup ranks No. 11 (14.550) and Koudinov ranks No. 17 (14.450).
On rings, Moling comes in at No. 3 (15.500) and Melton ranks No. 14 (14.950).
Mayer paves the way for three Buckeyes ranked on vault, as he is currently No. 1 on the event (15.800). After Mayer, freshman Logan Melander ranks No. 3 (15.150) and Dastrup ranks No. 10 (14.950).
On parallel bars, Koudinov ranks No. 2 (15.150) while freshman Andrew Rickly ranks No. 17 (14.700).
Koudinov also holds the No. 1 spot on high bar (15.000). Three other Buckeyes also rank within the Top 20, as Melton enters the rankings at No. 11 (14.750), senior Kris Done ranks No. 14 (14.700) and Moling ranks No. 17 (14.500).
BREAKING RECORDS
Two Buckeyes set or tied NCAA records at the Windy City Invitational. Newburger scored a career-high and Ohio State record 16.250 on pommel horse to earn the all-time best record on the event while junior Larry Mayer tied the all-time best record on vault with his career-high and Ohio State record score of 15.800.
The previous NCAA record on pommel horse (16.00) was set by Daniel Ribeiro (Illinois) in 2009, while Mayer is now tied for the NCAA record on vault with Jake Dalton (Oklahoma), who originally set the current record in 2011.
CGA AND BIG TEN GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
Newburger was named CGA Gymnast of the Week and Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for his record-breaking performance at the Windy City Invitational. The national and conference awards marked the first career weekly honors for the Austin, Texas, native.
FRESHMAN SUCCESS
Four freshmen opened their collegiate careers at the Windy City Invitational last weekend, as Dastrup, Melander, Melton and Rickly all competed on at least one event for the Buckeyes. Dastrup ended the competition with three Top 10 finishes, placing tenth on floor exercise, sixth on pommel horse and ninth on vault. Melton concluded the meet with three Top 5 finishes, placing third on pommel horse, fifth on rings and fifth on high bar, while Melander earned a fourth-place finish on vault and Rickly earned an eighth-place finish on parallel bars.
UP NEXT
Ohio State continues its schedule on the road, traveling to Ann Arbor, Mich., to compete against the No. 2 Wolverines Saturday, Feb. 1 at Cliff Keen Arena at 2 p.m.
