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.
