Nebraska Falls To Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minn. ? After a meet-long struggle for the top spot, the University of Nebraska men’s gymnastics team fell to Minnesota, 211.45-212.725, Saturday, March 6 at the Sports Pavillion in Minneapolis, Minn. This is the first time in 2004 that NU has lost to the 11th-ranked Gophers and moves Nebraska’s all-time dual record against Minnesota to 15-11-1.

Although the Huskers changed leads with Minnesota several times throughout the course of the competition, they were able to get out in front of the Gophers, 177.325-177.30, heading into the final event of the afternoon.  However, Nebraska was not able to piece together a sturdy enough parallel bars routine to hold on for the win.

The NU gymnasts earned just one individual event title in the competition, which came from senior Josh Rasile with a 9.525 on the still rings. This is Rasile’s seventh title this season and his fourth on the rings.

Nebraska sophomore Nic Matthews earned three personal bests against the Gophers en route to his one of his best performances of the season. Matthews scored an 8.4 during the Husker’s opening pommel horse routine, which improved his previous best of 8.2 from earlier this season against Ohio State. On the floor, Matthews put together several strong tumbling sequences for a score of 9.1; the highest of any NU gymnast at the competition and a second-place finish in that event. This shatters his previous best of 8.95, which he earned at the beginning of the 2003 season at the MPSF team competition. He also tied his career high on the horizontal bar with a score of 8.7. Finally, Matthews combined for his best all-around score of his career with a 51.2 and a third-place overall finish.

"Matthews did a real good job for us this weekend," head coach Francis Allen said. "If we just could have had everybody at the same level that he was today we would have won. We just really need to be on the same page."

Junior Mace Patterson, usually Nebraska’s top all-arounder, was removed from the event for this competition due to a bruised heel, which Allen felt needed the week to rest.

"We took Mace out of all-around because of his heel and it was really more of resting thing than anything," Allen said. "The thing to remember is that it really didn’t hurt us that much to compete in some of the events without him. We just couldn’t rally."

As a team, Nebraska sported their best event score for the dual with an impressive vault routine (36.875). Junior Tony Burtle led this effort with a 9.35 and a tie for the second-place position, followed closely by Rasile who finished third (9.325). Sophomore Derric Wood boasted a seasonal-high score of 9.15 just behind his career best of 9.2, which he earned against the Gophers in 2003.

Next weekend, the Huskers will return to Lincoln to host their final meet of the 2004 season as they welcome Air Force and Oklahoma to the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Friday, March 12 at 7 p.m. Allen feels that this could be an extremely challenging and yet rewarding meet for Nebraska before they head off to the MPSF Championships the following week.

"We need to patch up and get ready because Oklahoma is going to be hot next week," Allen said. "But we should also put up a pretty good score at home so I’m really quite optimistic."

Team Scores       Score
1. Minnesota        212.725
2. Nebraska         211.450

Individual Placers (NU Gymnasts Only)

Floor Exercise            Score
2. Nic Matthews            9.10
3. Jason Wassung        8.80

Pommel Horse
3. Paul Chumreonlert     9.20

Still Rings
1. Josh Rasile               9.525
3. Paul Chumreonlert     9.25

Vault
2(t). Tony Burtle            9.35
3. Josh Rasile               9.325

Parallel Bars
3. Mace Patterson         8.675

Horizontal Bar
3. Mace Patterson         9.20