King Captures First Career Big Ten Medal

Four members of the Nebraska men's gymnastics team qualified for the individual event finals of the Big Ten Championships on Saturday evening. The top ten highest scoring athletes on each event Friday night (March 27) qualified to participate in the individual competition at Rec Hall in State College, Pa.

Freshman Kyle King led the way for the Big Red, earning his first ever Big Ten medal after tying for third place on vault with a 15.10. King also finished ninth on floor, while sophomore Travis Gollott tabbed eighth on the event. Senior Andrew House notched eighth for his pommel horse routine, as junior Sam Chamberlain finished seventh on vault and 10th on parallel bars.

King’s dominant performance on vault earned him second-team All-Big Ten honors, the only conference award received by the Huskers. Senior Robbie Kocks received a 2015 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Nebraska.

The first half of the competition saw action on floor, pommel horse and rings in an alternating format. Gollott went first up on the first event of the night, floor exercise, and grabbed a 13.875 after setting his hands down on his Arabian double front pass. He fought back throughout the rest of the routine, sticking his triple full on the last pass.

House topped off his first-ever event finals on pommel horse with a 14.425. He delivered a seamless performance with only a minor form break toward the second half of his routine in his senior Big Ten Championships.

After a brief intermission for a second warm up period on the first three events, King led off the second half of floor with a 13.80. He strung together a beautiful routine throughout but suffered a rare fall on the last pass after his feet slid out from underneath him.

The second half of the meet held the vault, parallel bars and high bar competition as Chamberlain and King headlined as Nebraska’s last two competitors of the evening.  Chamberlain opened up parallel bars in the leadoff position and suffered an early fall. The All-American fought back to finish the rest of the routine strong to earn a 13.275.

King occupied the third spot in the vault rotation, where he vaulted to a career high-tying 15.10. The Mesquite, Texas, native only took a small hop on the landing to finish tied for the third place spot. Chamberlain finished as the last Nebraska competitor of the night on vault, where he stuck for the second night in a row for his second consecutive 14.95 career high mark.

The Huskers will now wait until next week to learn if they were accepted to the NCAA championships. The NCAA will announce its National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Selections next week on Tuesday. A total of 12 teams, 36 event specialists and six all-around competitors will be chosen for competition at this year's NCAA Men's Gymnastics championships, which will be held in Norman, Okla., on April 9-11 on the University of Oklahoma campus.

2015 Big Ten Championships
Individual Competition
Rec Hall
State College, Pa.

Floor Exercise
Travis Gollott (8th)
Kyle King (9th)

Pommel Horse
Andrew House (8th)

Vault
Kyle King (T-3rd)
Sam Chamberlain (7th)

Parallel Bars
Sam Chamberlain (10th)

Coach of the Year
Randy Jepson (Penn State)

Gymnast of the Year
Bobby Baker (Illinois)

Freshman of the Year
Bobby Baker (Illinois)

First Team All-Big Ten
Bobby Baker (Illinois)
Fred Hartville (Illinois)
C.J. Maestas (Illinois)
Jordan Valdez (Illinois)
Stacey Ervin (Michigan)
Nick Hunter (Michigan)
Ellis Mannon (Minnesota)
Alex Johnson (Ohio State)
Drew Moling (Ohio State)
Trevor Howard (Penn State)
Matthew Felleman (Penn State)

Second Team All-Big Ten
Matthew Foster (Illinois)
Joey Peters (Illinois)
Mike Wilner (Illinois)
Douglas Sullivan (Iowa)
Anthony Stefanelli (Michigan)
Steve Jaciuk (Minnesota)
Yarslav Pochinka (Minnesota)
Kyle King (Nebraska)
Andrew Rickly (Ohio State)

Sportsmanship Award Winners
C.J. Maestas (Illinois)
Del Vecchio Orozco (Iowa)
Stacey Ervin (Michigan)
Sean Bauer (Minnesota)
Robbie Kocks (Nebraska)
Drew Moling (Ohio State)
Trevor Howard (Penn State)