Penn State Men Post Nation's Top Score at Navy Open

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; January 19, 2013-- The Penn State men's gymnastics squad took the top National ranking into the Navy Open on Saturday (Jan. 19) and put together another impressive performance to win the meet with a score of 440.90. Trevor Howard (Columbus, Ohio) and Matthew Felleman (Medway, Mass.) took the top two spots in the all-around competition, Craig Hernandez (Libertyville, Ill.) broke his own school record on the pommel horse and head coach Randy Jepson saw his team post 18 personal bests on the afternoon.   "Our guys fought hard today," said head coach Randy Jepson. "The Navy Open was a good chance for us to get some guys a few more reps and enabled our team to compete in a format we won't see again until the Big Ten Championships. This meet will definitely help us down the road and enabled our guys to get a lot of touches."   The Nittany Lions topped the field with a team score of 440.90, finishing well ahead of second place William & Mary's team point total of 409.40. Temple claimed the third spot with 407.05 points, Navy finished fourth with 398.80 points, while Springfield College was fifth with 391.15 points and Brockport rounded out the team scores with 165.75 points to finish sixth.   It was a complete effort for the Nittany Lions on the afternoon, winning five of the six individual events, taking the top team score on all six events and claiming the top two individual all-around scores. The Blue and White swept the top three individual spots on four apparatus to claim their 16th straight in-season invitational team title.     Hernandez topped his own school standard on the pommel horse when he anchored the highest scoring unit in the event with a score of 15.750. The sophomore set the school record last season at the NCAA Championships where he earned All-America honors on the apparatus, but bettered his score by five one-hundredths of a point during his routine on Saturday.

Jan 20, 2013