In the first of three meets this week for their spring trip, No. 12 men’s gymnastics (10-4) started off with a loss to No. 9 California Berkeley 428.650-405.150.
“We started off well,” men’s coach Fred Turoff said. “First two events we started out well and then things kind of just fell apart. California Berkeley was a better team then us, and we didn’t look as good as I certainly would’ve liked too.”
Graduate student Taylor Brana was a bright spot for Temple. The native of Yavne, Israel led the Owls in scoring on three events. Posting a 14.200 on pommel horse, a 14.300 on rings, and tied senior Alex Tighe for the lead on parallel bars with a 14.600
However, Brana said he did not feel that confident heading into the meet.
“The past week I really didn’t feel good in the gym,” Brana said. “But I really took care of myself and made sure I was in a good mental place, and today I came in and I felt really great.”
Brana, who used to live in California believes that the at home feel may have helped his performance as well.
“I used to live in California, so I just felt at home, I felt comfortable, did what I needed to do and it showed in the performance,” Brana said.
California came away with all six event titles for the day, but Temple’s strongest showing in the competition was on floor exercise. Led by senior Allan Malone’s 14.900, the Owls scored a 71.100 overall on the apparatus.
Overall, Brana said he was unhappy with the team’s performance.
“I was a little disappointed,” Brana said. “I think some of the guys that normally do compete well didn’t. But we still have another few weeks coming up where we are going to compete at the ECAC championship and I think we have a lot of time to progress and pick it up from here, we’re going to prove ourselves from here.”
The Owls will look to pick it up at Colorado for Thursday’s 6 p.m. meet with Air Force.
Be the first to comment