Owls out muscle No. 11 Illinois-Chicago and No. 15 Springfield

The men’s gymnastics squad took first place, tallying 337.7 points, which is its second-highest total this season, in a tri-meet against visitors No. 11 Illinois-Chicago Flames (325.5), and No. 15 Springfield (Mass.) Pride (320.5), on Saturday night at

The men’s gymnastics squad took first place, tallying 337.7 points, which is its second-highest total this season, in a tri-meet against visitors No. 11 Illinois-Chicago Flames (325.5), and No. 15 Springfield (Mass.) Pride (320.5), on Saturday night at McGonigle Hall.

Entering the sixth and final rotation of the events, Temple entered leading by 11.6 points (283.8) over the Flames. In the sixth rotation, the Pride scored a meet-best 56.5 in the vault thanks to freshman Jeff White’s 14.7 and a 14.0 from freshman Sam Docherty. Temple pushed through the difficult routines in the horizontal bars by scoring 53.9 on a 14.1 from junior Allan Malone, along with senior Logan Fiery who scored 13.7. Sophomore Joseph Hodges paced the Flames in the parallel bars by posting 14.1.

The evening also consisted of five other rotations, the first three of floor exercise, pommel horse, and rings.Temple dominated the floor exercise, which received 58.5, the highest total in any event. The Owls saw scores on the floor of 14.7 from junior Brett Statman, 14.6 from sophomore John Leonard, 14.5 by Malone and 14.4 from junior Zach Aguiar. Springfield posted 57.1 during the floor exercise, highlighted by junior Jimmy Pezzino’s 14.7. Illinois-Chicago recorded a 57.0 on the floor, which saw the highest individual score for any event of 15.3 by junior Dan Zerbel.

Also during the competition, Owls senior Adam Al-Rokh, who earned a top score of 82.4 in all around at the January 2011 Navy Open, muscled through difficult routines to post 83.1 in his gym’s all around competition, including 14.8 on the rings, the best score from that event.

Temple dominated the rings portion, posting a team score of 56.8, while the Flames recorded 54.5 and the Pride achieved 53.3. Hodges and junior Justin Maxwell each posted 13.3 on the rings for the Flames, while sophomore Ryan Ponce of the Pride wowed the crowd with 14.5, but Temple received 14.4 from graduate student Blake Collins and a 14.8 from Al-Rohk.

The Pommel horse event belonged to the Owls, as they recorded 55.4 points, highlighted by senior Chris Mooney’s 14.1. Freshman Pat Ryther recorded a 13.6 in the pommel for the Pride, but sophomore Bryan Pusateri muscled 14.7 for the Flames.

Illinois-Chicago squeaked by Temple, 56.5-56.4 in the vault, highlighted by the Flames’ freshman Brett Valin achieving 14.8. Temple’s Statman recorded a 14.6 in the event.

Next for the Owls is a ECAC home meet against Army and Brockport on Sunday February 26 at 1:00pm in McGonigle Hall.

Scott Samuel David Weiss can be reached at scott.weiss@temple.edu.

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