UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State men's gymnastics takes second with a season high score of 415.290 to advance to the 2023 NCAA Championship Finals. The Nittany Lions notch their highest team score since 2018 and earn their first NCAA Championship Finals team berth since 2019.
"It was a super night tonight for Penn State," said head coach Randy Jepson. "We've talked about getting better each week and we've done that. We're still not perfect, we still have sticks to get, but over two meets with 60 routines we've only had two misses. We also talked about saving the best for last, which is tomorrow so we couldn't be more excited."
Josh Karnes and Matt Cormier took the top two all-around scores of the night. Karnes earned a career high 83.965 and Cormier also earned a personal high 83.031, to finish second.
The Big Ten parallel bars Champion, Karnes' career high parallel bars score of 15.033 was tied for the highest score of both sessions. He also posted a best score of 14.666 on vault and stick bonuses on high bar (13.200), rings (13.966), vault and parallel bars.
The Nittany Lions nailed three stick bonuses on high bar from Michael Artlip, Ian Raubal and Karnes to start off the meet.
Cormier led the Nittany Lions on floor with a score of 13.700 finishing in 11th. A career high 14.166 for Fleck and 13.933 for Dick on floor helped push the team to their highest event score of the season with 69.865.
Reigning pommel horse National Champion, Chase Clingman, guided the team on the apparatus with 13.900 to place fourth. The team earned their highest event score of the season with 67.066. Michael Jaroh placed ninth with a score of 13.400 and Karnes followed to earn 10th with 13.300.
Matthew Underhill earned a career best on the still rings to clinch a three-way tie for first with a score of 14.300. Raubal tied for fourth with a score of 14.066, while Karnes finished in seventh with 13.966.
The team headed to vault next. Karnes earned a career best with a 14.666 on vault to place fourth and Cormier placed 10th with a 14.433.
Penn State finished on parallel bars with the highest team score of the meet and its highest of the season, 70.697. Karnes led the way for the Nittany Lions on parallel bars earning a career best score of 15.033 to tie for first. Cormier (14.466) and Ian Raubal (14.266) placed fourth and seventh.
The whole team advances to the NCAA Championship Finals tomorrow, Saturday, April 15 at 6 p.m. in Rec Hall.
