Women’s gymnastics (4-21) will head to William and Mary for a 1 p.m. competition against the Tribe tomorrow.

Coach Aaron Murphy said that he has been happy with the way the team was performing in practice this week and he used the spring break to display a little bit of strategy.

“We looked really good,” Murphy said. “With this being spring break, I only brought back my top 15, so that kind of cut some numbers down but really allows us to focus on the individuals in [the gym]. At this point they can all do their routines, now we just need to try and clean it up and perfect it, and that’s what we worked on this week.”

Heading into tomorrow’s meet, Murphy has high expectations for his team.

“Our expectations for the meet tomorrow is just going in there and trying to hit 24 for 24,” Murphy said. “I truly believe that we haven’t really shown how strong of a team we are, so if we can push a [score of] 192 and change, that’s what I’m leaning towards as a coach.”

Having come in fourth place out of four at the team’s last quad-meet at Penn State last week, the Owls will be looking to get back in the win column tomorrow at William and Mary.

In the last leg of its spring trip, No.13 men’s gymnastics (10-5) will take on University of Chicago-Illinois in Chicago tomorrow at 1 p.m. Having lost their first two meets of the trip at California-Berkeley and Air Force, the Owls will look to salvage a win at Chicago to conclude this year’s spring trip.

Temple struggled greatly in last Thursday’s meet at Air Force, counting a total of 21 falls. Something that men’s coach Fred Turoff said he was not happy about.

“We had a poor meet again. In fact it was embarrassing,” Turoff said. “We counted 21 falls, so there went 21 full points. We had our lowest score with a full team of the season, 398.5.”

After the meet, the team came together for a team meeting to address the squad’s recent struggles, something that made graduate student Taylor Brana hopeful for the rest of the season.

“We came in as a team,” Brana said. “And said ‘look guys, what do we all need to do in order to change this, and for this to not happen again?’ and we all threw out ideas and suggestions. And we heard a lot
of great things, and I’m hopeful, I’m really hopeful.”

During the team’s recent losing skid, Brana has been a bright spot. The native of Israel has led Temple in scoring in three events in both of their losses this week, and will look to continue to perform well this Sunday.

On the his team’s last meet of their spring trip, Turoff said, “We head to Chicago for the last leg of our spring break trip, and hopefully will get back on the track to a better performance.”

Coming off of last week’s season high team score of 191.625, women’s gymnastics (4-18) will look to keep their momentum going forward this Saturday, as they head to Penn State University for a quad-meet with New Hampshire, University of Pennsylvania, and host Penn State for a 4 p.m. competition. Meanwhile, men’s gymnastics (10-3) will begin its spring trip this weekend. The No. 12 Owls will start their spring trip, flying to California for a Sunday meet with the Golden Bears starting at 5 p.m. before heading to Air Force next Thursday, and University of Illinois-Chicago next Sunday.

Coming off of a career day last week, senior Jean Alban will aim to keep her good form and help lead the Owls to victory this Saturday at Penn State. At last week’s quad-meet at West Virginia University, the Springfield, Mass. native posted career highs in vault, uneven bars, and in the all-around.

Women’s coach Aaron Murphy said his team is excited for this weekend’s competition.

“Our team is really looking forward to the Penn State meet with New Hampshire and

Penn,” Murphy said. “Coming off our season high at West Virginia with a 191.625, we hope to top that score on Saturday.”

Murphy has been very pleased with his team’s performance of late.

“The past couple of weeks have been a blast to watch the team grow more and more confident with their gymnastics and I feel the team is peaking at the right time,” Murphy said.

After defeating State University of New York at Brockport last week, men’s gymnastics will also look to keep their momentum going forward heading into their spring trip.

In an injury plagued season, senior Brett Statman will look to keep progressing. Statman performed well winning event titles in vault and floor exercise at SUNY Brockport, in only his second appearance for the Owls this season. Nagging back pains have kept Statman out the majority of the year.

Men’s coach Fred Turoff said his team is eager to begin their spring trip.

“We’re looking forward to our Spring Break trip,” Turoff said. “We’ll meet California-Berkeley on Sunday, so we expect good competition.”

Along with competing, Turoff said he plans to do a little sight-seeing with his team during their spring trip.

“We’ll visit San Francisco and Muir Woods in California, Garden of the Gods and Pike’s Peak in Colorado, and probably go up the Sears Tower in Chicago,” Turoff said. “It’s important to see more than a hotel room and a gym on trips when we can.”

The awards continue to keep falling Temple’s way. In six weeks of competition, Temple has had at least one gymnast recognized on the Eastern Collegiate Athletics Conference weekly honor. Senior Jean Alban is the most recent recipient of an ECAC weekly honor. The Springfield, Mass native has been named the ECAC Gymnast of the Week
for the second time this season.

At the Owls most recent meet last Sunday at West Virginia University, Alban was the main contributor to Temple’s season-high team score of 191.175. In the best performance of her collegiate career, Alban posted career high scores on vault (9.575) and uneven bars (9.675), and had her highest score of the day on balance beam (9.750). All en route to setting a career best all-around score of 38.650.

Alban and the rest of the Owls will compete this Saturday at Penn State at 4 p.m.

Both men’s and women’s gymnastics were in action on Sunday, March 3. The No. 12 men’s gymnastics (10-3) easily defeated State University of New York at Brockport with a final score of 394.150-258.100, taking all six event titles in the process. While women’s gymnastics (4-18) posted a season-high team score of 191.175, placing fourth behind Denver (196.800), host West Virginia (196.375) and George Washington (195.300).

Senior Brett Statman announced his presence back into the line-up. The Rye Brook N.Y. native has missed the majority of the season due to back problems but proved to still be in good form, winning the event title on both vault and floor exercise.

The freshman duo of Jon Rydzefski and Evan Eigner also had performed very well. Like Statman, Rydzefski also won multiple event titles, beating all competitors in both high bar and parallel bars, while classmate Eigner claimed the event title on rings. Senior Alex Tighe completed the sweep for the Owls, taking home the event title on pommel horse.

This was the men’s last meet before their spring trip, where the Owls will be competing across the country three times in a span of one week. They will first head to California for a 2 p.m. meet Sunday, before heading to Air Force next Thursday and then closing out their trip the following Sunday at University of Illinois-Chigaco.

Even though women’s gymnastics did finish last at West Virginia, they did set a new season high team score of 191.175 in the process.

Senior Jean Alban was the main contributor to that score for Temple. Alban posted career-highs in vault and bars, leading to her career high in the all-around as well with a score of 38.650.

Alban also tied teammate and junior team captain Heather Zaniewski for the team high score on balance beam as well. The pair both scored a 9.750 leading to the team’s overall score of 48.500 on the apparatus, which was once again the team’s highest overall event score. Zaniewski followed beam up with a new personal best on vault as well scoring a 9.675.

Next, the Owls will look to notch a couple of wins when they will head to State College, Pa. to compete in another quad-meet with host Penn State, New Hampshire and ECAC and city-rival Penn. Competition begins Saturday at 4 p.m.