Schedule: (Competition on both days is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.)
Fri., April 2 – All-around competition
Sat., April 3 – Individual Event Finals
Youth comes with a growing curve.
Going into this weekend’s Big Ten Championship Randy Jepson believes the youthful men’s gymnastics team is beginning to overcome this curve.
“We are a real young team,” said Jepson. “We are coming off our best meet of the season against Oklahoma”
“The younger guys are starting to trust in themselves.”
A No. 7 Nittany Lions team, 50 percent of which is comprised of freshman, will compete for its third conference title in the 2010 Big Ten Men’s Gymnastics Championship on Friday and Saturday at the St. John Arena at Ohio State. Penn State is coming of 359.250-354.450 season-high scoring loss to Oklahoma on March 20.
Despite the loss, Jepson considers the team’s last competition a major growing point for his younger players to have before this weekends competition.
“We did not have any misses where it counted,” said Jepson. “The guys started to develop some confidence in this meet.”
The Nittany Lions are 1-3 against Big Ten competition. Senior gymnast Nick Virbitsky recognizes his team’s early troubles, but also believes his freshman teammates have grown since earlier in the season.
“Early on (the freshmen) did not really know how to compete on the college level,” said Virbitsky. ‘But by this point in the season they are practically sophomores.”
Sophomore Miguel Pineda looks at this weekend’s competition as an opportunity for his team to show how much they have grown.
“There is a sense of a redemption factor,” said Pineda. “We are looking to go and do more.
“We are excited to go out and work something fresh, new and better into our routines.”
Though Pineda is a sophomore, he has never competed in the conference championship before. The Ohio native broke his left hand during practice just four days before the championship.
The injury forced him to miss both the conference and NCAA championships.
“It was disappointing not being able to compete last year,” said Pineda. “I am really excited to finally get a shot to come out and compete this year.”
A successful Big Ten Championship would be a major step in the Nittany Lions pursuit to win their NCAA-record 13th national championship. Pineda recognized the importance of championship games.
“Throughout the year every competition is important,” said Pineda. “But there are a couple championships that are really important.
“We have to go out there and be confident.”
Confidence was a factor that both Pineda and Virbitsky recognized as important in their team’s success this weekend. Virbitsky believes a top three finish would be a major step for his team.
“You could tell early on in the season in (the freshman players) faces that that they were scared,” said Virbitsky. “Now you can see in their body language that they have grown and are having fun.
“Most definitely. Having fun is a major factor.”
