Temple University Athletics
Owls Crowned 2007 Men's ECAC-EIGL Champions
3.31.07 | Men's Gymnastics
March 31, 2007
ECAC - EIGL Team and All-Around Results (.pdf)
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple men's gymnastics team (208.400) cruised to its 15th ECAC-EIGL Conference Championship title on Saturday at McGonigle Hall. Illinois-Chicago placed second (202.700) while Army finished third (200.300). Today's conference title marks the program's first title since 2003.
Temple's team score eclipses the 206.450 season-high score recorded just a few short weeks ago. In addition to the team title, Temple's Luke Vexler, Sterling Kramer, and John Vogtman compiled a first, second and third place sweep in the all-around. Freshman Patrick McLaughlin finished seventh.
The Temple gymnasts came out swinging, literally, in the first rotation with a solid parallel bars effort for a team total of 33.800. Senior co-captain Nadov Simenauer was the lead-off man for his team, and garnered a respectable 7.900 (peach; Stutz; double tuck). McLaughlin followed with a solid 8.450 (Tippelt, healy, Diamadov; Stutz; double tuck). After solid sets from Vogtman (8.250) and Vexler (8.400), Kramer came up big with an 8.700 (peach, Diamadov, back toss; solid double pike dismount).
Meanwhile, Army was hitting good vaults, but failed to stick the landings that were needed to rake in the big scores. UIC was quite impressive on floor exercise, highlighted by Jeff Bill's 9.150.
Rotation 2 saw Navy come out with some impressive high bar sets for a 33.800, while Army continued to struggle a bit over at parallel bars for a mediocre 32.950 team score. UIC had troubles of their own on pommels, and mustered but a 31.650 total.
Sitting out the second rotation on a bye, Temple came out and owned high bar in the third rotation. After Iles struggled for a 7.250, senior Derek Shepard put his game face on and rocked a solid 8.400 (Geinger; stuck 1/1 double layout). Junior Andy Corp took his Tkatchev release way above the bar, and barely scraped his hands on his triple back flyaway for a decent 8.300. Anchoring high bar for the Owls were Vexler (8.850) and Kramer, the latter drawing gasps from the crowd with his sky-high, knees together Kolmann. After a steady Rybalko to mixed grip, Kramer brought the crowd to their feet with a drilled 1/1 double layout (8.850).
Happy to have hit their two most inconsistent events, the Owls moved over to the floor exercise and kept the momentum rolling with some world-class tumbling. Even junior Alex Gorski, who mistimed his opening pass of back 3/2, front 1/1, punch 1 and 3/4, covered nicely and avoided any major errors for an 8.300. Iles added an 8.750, Kramer an 8.900, and Vogtman hit a solid 8.700.
However, the highlights of this floor rotation came from the solid 1-2 punch of Vexler, and senior floor specialist Clay Stewart. Vexler tumbled through a nice laid out Arabian 1 ¾, a tucked Thomas salto, whip, 3/2, front 1/1; back 5/2 dismount for a 9.200. Stewart, who seems to change his floor routine for every competition, put it all on the table for this afternoon's competition. Mounting with an aggressive 3/2, 1/1, Rudi, he came back with a stylish front 2/1 to an immediate barani. Stewart then unveiled yet another new pass of full-twisting whip to immediate back 5/2. Not out of breath just yet, he cruised to an easy whip-immediate 3/1 dismount, for an event and team-high score of 9.450. Stewart's 9.450 was also the highest score of any athlete during the competition.
The Owls had another bye rotation after floor, and watched as Army hit floor for a solid 34.500 team total. UIC hit some good vaults, but didn't have the start values needed for any big scores and scrapped together a 33.050 score.
Perhaps the rest for the Owls brought down some of their momentum, as several of the guys fell on the precarious event. Iles and senior Dan Berlin (7.800, 7.600) were shaky, but nailed the rest of their sets to keep the Owls alive. Not wanting to count those scores, Corp delivered a crucial 8.400. Kramer got off to great start, but faltered toward the end of his set. Even Vogtman, the first-ranked pommel horse worker in the conference, couldn't keep his balance, yet still managed an 8.600.
"I was a little disappointed with how pommels went for our guys, as it wasn't the pommel rotation we had hoped for. However, they fought back well, and hit the rest of their sets quite cleanly," said head coach Fred Turoff.
The Owls had little time to spare, as they got set for their fifth event, the still rings. Co-captain Greg Monaco got his team into a huddle, and reminded his guys that they had to put those breaks behind them and look to the next event.
"The real challenge was getting through our first two events. We weren't about to let those falls on pommel horse ruin our momentum," said Monaco.
Fellow co-captain Simenauer had to leave his fellow captain to keep the team's spirit up, as he got set to lead the Owls off on the still rings. His 8.350 set was highlighted by a solid L-cross-maltese combination, and a solid full twisting double tuck dismount. From there on out, it looked like the Owls were having a sticking contest, with Shepard, McLaughlin, and Vexler all nailing their full-twisting doubles for scores of 8.950, 8.700, and 8.600, respectively. Kramer went a little awry after a giant swing, but muscled his way back to handstand and took the slightest shuffle on his dismount. Anchoring the rings for Temple was Vogtman, who cruised to an easy 9.200 score (kip-maltese; Yamawaki-uprise straddle planche; full-twisting double tuck).
With all of the Temple fans on their feet for the last event, the Owls had nothing to lose at this point, except they didn't even know it. Shepard boomed an incredible Kas-1/1 for a lead off 8.750, and was followed by Gorski's 8.350 (handspring Rudi). The crowd went absolutely wild after Vexler nailed his Yurchenko 3/2 for a score of 8.750. Kramer and Vogtman both stood up nice Kas 1/1's as well for scores of 8.400 and 8.500, respectively.
When it was all said and done, Temple had won its 15th ECAC/EIGL conference championship.
Freshman Patrick McLaughlin was beaming after the competition, stating that "This was the best experience of my life." Given Patrick's 7th place all-around showing, the highest of any rookie, we're sure he'll be experiencing many more experiences like the one he had today.
Vexler accepted his all-around award from 1948 and 1952 Olympian Clare Schroth-Lomady. The two-time Olympian was actually an Olympic teammate with Vexler's grandmother. After taking part in such a meaningful award ceremony, Vexler was beaming ear to ear as he said, "This team came together today and proved that we have come such a long way in the past year. Everyone was sticking landings today, and that energy carried over from gymnast to gymnast, event to event. I'm so proud of these guys."
No stranger to the conference championships, first-year assistant coach Theo Maes was in awe of how his team performed today.
"I was on the 2002 and 2003 championship teams, but winning the title as a coach is so much more exciting. I'm just so excited right now, I almost wish I was still competing with these guys," said an overwhelmed Maes.
Navy (198.750), William & Mary (197.800), Springfield (182.000), M.I.T. (176.150) and James Madison (161.00) rounded out the rest of the field.
Today's conference title guarantees Temple's presence at the 2007 NCAA Men's Championships. This year's national championships will be held on the campus of Penn State at Rec Hall, April 12-14.
The ECAC-EIGL Championships will conclude tomorrow, April 1 at 2:00 p.m. in McGonigle Hall. Sunday's competition will feature the top eight individual performers on each of the six apparatus, as they compete for bragging rights as the conference best on each event. Admission is $5.00 and the event can also be seen live through owlsports.com's online video stream.
