Malone leads men’s gymnastics to win

Following a mediocre performance last week at the Navy Open,
coach Fred Turoff said that the mistakes his team made were
correctable. So far, it turns out he was right.

No. 13 Temple men’s gymnastics beat Springfield College with a
final score of 408.750 to 398.300.

The Owls competed well in every event, having gymnasts taking home
event titles in five of the six events. Fifth-year gymnast and team
captain Evan Burke won event titles both on vault and in floor
exercise. Graduate student and co-captain Taylor Brana earned a score
of 14.350 on parallel bars to take the event title on that apparatus.
Senior Alex Tighe was awarded the individual title on the high bar
with his earned score of 14.750, and sophomore Michael Bittner led all
gymnasts on pommel horse with his score of 14.300.

However, the story of the day was senior Allan Malone, who captured
the all-around title with a score of 81.050. Malone was consistent
throughout the entire meet, finishing 7th on pommel horse, 2nd on
parallel bars, 8th on vault, 8th on still rings, 9th on floor
exercise, and 2nd on high bar. All of which helped contribute to his
1st place overall score.

Freshman Jon Rydzefski also had an excellent day. Staying in good form
following his breakthrough performance last week at the Navy Open to
start his collegiate career, Rydzefski managed to perform even better,
finishing in 3rd place for the all-around with a score of 77.850.

“We are well on our way to getting better,” Turoff said. “I think we looked a lot better than we did last week. In many cases we looked better.”

Although he was pleased with the results, Turoff knows his team is
still not at their peak.

“We still have some small errors, and next week at the West Point Open
were going to have to do a little bit better,” he said. “The competition in our
conference is tight.”

Senior Brett Statman was not in competition today because of
consistent pains in his back. Statman sat out all last week in
practice, and Turoff plans to continue to take it easy with Statman
until he is fully healed, no timetable yet set.

Next up, the Owls (3-3) will travel to New York for Friday’s West
Point Open at the United States Military Academy, starting at 7 p.m.

Samuel Matthews can be reached at samuel.matthews@temple.edu.