The No. 10 Gophers men’s gymnastics team was dominated by No. 2 Michigan Sunday afternoon by a score of 412.800-384.400 in its last away meet of the season.
Led by all-around senior Jacob Moore, who contributed a total of 81.900, the Wolverines defeated the Gophers in every event of the meet.
“With Shane Wiskus, David Pochinka and Mike Moran out of the lineup, our other guys needed to step up and fill the void,” Gophers head coach Mike Burns said. “Definitely some shining moments out there today, but also a couple of rough routines that were momentum killers.”
Sophomore Victor Perez was a bright spot for the Gophers. He set career-highs on all three of the events he competed in – floor, high bar and parallel bars.
Freshman Noah Duran made his event debut on the still rings. This is the third event he has competed in for the Gophers this season.
Pommel Horse – Team Score = 61.250
The Gophers got off to a slow start on the pommel horse, scoring a total of 61.250, their worst team total of the meet.
Junior Matt Sullivan made his season debut, scoring 12.250, after recovering from two elbow surgeries earlier this year.
Freshman Evan Ng had his first-ever appearance in a Gophers uniform, scoring 12.600.
Senior Henry Meeker, Duran and sophomore Andrew Hyde also competed for the Gophers’ pommel horse team. They scored 12.900, 12.800 and 10.700 respectively.
Floor – Team Score = 64.200
Led by senior Colton Dee, who scored 13.850 to finish in third place, the Gophers started to recover from their slow start.
Perez followed right behind Dee’s performance, scoring 13.300, to set a new career-high.
Juniors Garrett Kasiski, Ben Eyles and Danny Yoon also competed for the Gophers’ floor team, scoring 12.950, 12.500 and 11.600 respectively.
Vault – Team Score = 67.400
Led by Eyles, who had a magnificent performance to earn a season-high 14.500 and a third-place finish, the vault team had the best performance out of any of the events for Minnesota, scoring 67.400.
Just behind Eyles were Dee, sophomore Crew Bold and Kasiski, scoring 13.950 and 13.900 and 13.100 respectively. Hyde also competed for the Gophers’ vault team, scoring 11.900.
Still Rings – Team Score = 65.100
Led by Meeker, who scored a career-high 13.500, the Gophers continued to perform well into the still rings, but the Wolverines’ worst score was 13.500, and they had two competitors score over 14 points. Duran made his career debut on the still rings, scoring 12.800.
Bold, Kasiski and Dee also competed for the Gophers’ still rings team, scoring 13.250, 12.950 and 12.600 respectively.
High Bar – Team Score = 63.400
Led by matching 13.900s by sophomores Donte McKinney and Bold, the Gophers’ high bar team performed well, minus the uncharacteristic mistake from Dee, who scored 9.250.
To round out the rest of the Gophers’ high bar team, Perez earned a career-high score of 13.300 while Eyles tied his career-high score of 13.050.
Parallel Bars – Team Score = 63.050
Perez led the Gophers on the parallel bars, scoring a 13.100, to earn another career-high and a fifth-place finish. McKinney followed Perez, scoring 12.700, to finish in sixth place.
Yoon, Bold and Duran also competed for the Gophers’ parallel bars team, scoring 12.600, 12.550 and 12.100 respectively.
What’s up next
The Gophers will travel back to Minneapolis to compete at home against Illinois on March 22 at 4 p.m for their last meet of the season. The Big Ten Network will broadcast the meet.
“We have a full week of preparation until our final home meet against Illinois next week from Monday,” Burns said. “We’ll need to heal up a bit and address a couple of routines in terms of construction to improve to hit our potential.”
