Temple University Athletics
Owls Defeat William & Mary in Duel Meet
2.14.09 | Men's Gymnastics
Feb. 14, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple men's gymnastics team (8-5) took on EIGL/ECAC conference rival William & Mary in a duel meet showdown as part of the Temple Boys Invitational inside McGonigle Hall on Saturday, February 14, 2009.
Temple, currently ranked 4th in the conference took down the #1 conference ranked team with a convincing 332.550-325.650 win and also turned in the Owls highest team total of the season.
In the first rotation, Temple started on the floor exercise with a 14.200 from Scott Bloomfield (stuck front double pike mount). Ironically enough, Bloomfield's score would be the highest for the Owls on the event, with several of the guys taking minor landing deductions. Jeff Zack stepped out-of-bounds on his double layout mount; Tyler Croteau mis-timed a whip-immediate double Arabian (but stuck an impressive piked double Arabian); Evan Burke put a hand down on a triple-full dismount (showed a great 2.5 twist immediate front-full mount); and Patrick McLaughlin landed flat on his back during a roll-out skill, but was luckily unharmed.
Regardless of the mishaps, Temple compiled a 55.250 on the floor exercise to take the early lead over William & Mary, who swung conservative yet clean pommel horse routines for a 53.300 event total.
The two teams flip-flopped in the second rotation with Temple turning in some of their best pommel horse routines of the season. Although Croteau fell near the end of his lead-off set, the rest of the team picked up the pace in great style. Jesse Kitzen-Abelson powered through a difficult set for 13.900; John Vogtman added a 14.050; and Adam Al-Rokh maneuvered through a tricky set for an event high 14.200.
William & Mary, again, took the conservative route on floor exercise, but experienced many landing deductions along the way. Leading the charge for the Tribe was Josh Fried's 13.350.
After two rotations, Temple retained the lead, 110.900-104.550.
Temple moved to the still rings in the third rotation while William & Mary took advantage of the high-scoring vault event. The Owls turned in several solid routines, with Vogtman and Al-Rokh again leading the charge with scores of 14.150 and 14.300 to bring their event total to 56.350.
On the vault, William & Mary showed clean vaults for a 59.650, thus narrowing the lead by over 3 points.
At the halfway mark in the competition, Temple led 167.250-164.200.
With Temple on vault in the fourth rotation, the chance to distance themselves from the Tribe was apparent. Showing several high-ranked difficulty vaults, the Owls counted 4 scores over 15.000, including a pair of 15.200 scores from Burke and Jason Russo.
William & Mary showed some nice rings routines, but two of their athletes dismounted with double tuck somersaults, thus not meeting the dismount difficulty requirement set forth by the Code of Points. Not even James Prim's event high 14.350 (excellent maltese and double layout dismount) could elevate the team score, thus settling for a 54.600.
Temple's 60.600 on the vault brought the team score to 227.850, nearly 10 points ahead of the Tribe's 218.800.
In the fifth rotation, Temple took to the parallel bars, but had to start with a fall from Kitzen-Abelson (double front). The rest of the guys picked up the slack, however. Al-Rokh nailed his Roethlisberger dismount; and Russo caught his Morisue for an event high 14.450.
Heading into the final rotation, Temple's lead was a whopping 283.500-270.600.
Then, suddenly, the wheels came off on high bar.
Call it fatigue, call it a lack of a consistency, whatever you call it, it needs to be fixed.
Not one Owl managed a hit routine, with several of the sets including two falls. The talent is there and it's obvious, but this was just not their day.
Regardless, Temple won the competition, and sent a message to the rest of the conference the post season is going to be very interesting.
I was really pleased with most of the meet, said Owls head coach Fred Turoff. The men were on their way to a great score until high bar, probably just fatigue. They've been great in practice.
The Owls head up to Massachusetts next weekend, February 20-21, for two days of competition with MIT and Springfield. Fans can catch one more live home competition on Friday, March 6, when Temple takes on top-ranked Penn State in a Friday night match-up slated for a 7:00 PM start.
