The men’s gymnastics team lost a dual meet Friday night at Army by a score of 423.75 to 408.80. Despite being defeated, the Owls were able to improve on their effort from their final home meet, where they posted a team score of 402.500.
Coach Fred Turoff said that the improvement of more than five points was due to improvement in practice.
“Just training, and getting through our routines a little bit better,” Turoff said. “Still too many falls for my taste, but the fact that we’re getting through routines better and figuring out who to put in what spot a little bit better has helped.”
“This happens all through the season, you try to eliminate errors,” Turoff added. “And hopefully, your score climbs every meet.”
The Owls’ best team score of the year was headed by their effort on the floor exercise, where they scored a 69.300. Temple was led by Blaise Cosenza, who scored a 14.300. Brendan Williams followed with a mark of 14.250.
Even though floor was Temple’s best event, Turoff still sees room for improvement.
“We actually had two guys that missed on floor,” Turoff said. “But we do pretty good routines there anyway.”
One event that has been giving the Owls problems nearly all season is the parallel bars. This week, Temple posted a score of 66.050, its worst event of the meet.
“One fellow missed a dismount, but another missed a skill in the middle of his routine,” Turoff said. “And he’s been hitting that very well during this week, so it was a big surprise to us.”
Not one Owl reached the mark of 14 in this event. All-arounder Jacob Welsh led the way with a 13.700.
Temple’s best individual effort came from Evan Eigner, who scored a 14.550 on the rings. Turoff said that Eigner’s performance on the rings this year has been the most consistent across the board.
As for Temple’s all-arounders this week, Joe Rydzefski scored an 80.950, while Jacob Welsh posted an 81.950. Rydzefski had the best individual effort with a 14.150 on the high bar, but Welsh was more consistent overall, as he scored at least a 13.300 in all six events.
Next up for Temple is a trip to Annapolis to compete against Navy. Temple has already competed against the Midshipmen twice this season, most recently at the Navy Open, where the Owls finished fourth out of five teams.
Turoff said that next week’s meet will be a challenge.
“What’s interesting is Navy’s score has gone up this season, and they actually beat Army,” Turoff said. “We’re just going to try and get as close to them as possible. If they falter and we do better, then there’s a possibility of moving in and winning.”
Steve Bohnel can be reached at steven.bohnel@temple.edu or on Twitter @SteveSportsGuy1.
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