W&M Falls to Penn State in Men’s Gymnastics

Northurp Finishes Second in All-Around

02/29/04 2:00PM

State College, PA - Facing one of the nation’s premier programs on its home court, the Tribe’s 13th-ranked men’s gymnastics team turned in a solid 207.275-point effort, in falling to the hosting Penn State Nittany Lions (216.475) late Saturday evening.

Penn State, the nation’s fifth-ranked squad, remained undefeated on the season, while W&M dropped to 7-2 overall.

Despite the Lion’s lofty national status, two Tribe sophomores managed to record individual event titles, as Matt Elson (Brookfield, WI) took top honors on the high bar with a mark of 8.75 while Ramon Jackson (Orlando, FL) paced the field on the parallel bars by scoring a 9.30. Elson also finished third in the all-around with a 50.650 six-event total, while Jackson tied for second on the vault with a personal best effort of 9.4.

Jackson, who entered the meet as the nation’s second-ranked performer on the p-bars, has now won the event six-straight meets on the year. Jackson is also the team’s leading scorer with 238.65 points on the year. An incredible 27 of his 28 routines on the season have gone on to count for the Tribe’s team total.

Senior all-arounder Jamie Northrup (Newton, MA) turned in a solid six-event score (51.275) and finished second overall on Saturday. Northrup also posted the team’s top scores on both the floor (8.825) and pommel horse event (9.05).

Junior Steve Douglass (Clarks Summit, PA) rounded out the Tribe gymnasts to finish in the top three as he spun to a personal-best mark of 8.55 to finish third on the high bar.

Team Scoring
1 No. 5 Penn State 216.475
2 No. 13 William and Mary 207.275

Top Three Individuals
Floor Exercise
1 Chad Buczek PSU 9.250
2 Zach Roeder PSU 9.150
3 Steve Tobin PSU 8.900

Pommel Horse
1 Zach Roeder PSU 9.700
2 Kevin Tan PSU 9.200
3 Ludwig Kern PSU 9.100

Still Rings
1 Kevin Tan PSU 9.825
2 Chad Buczek PSU 9.350
3 Casey McIntryre PSU 9.050

Vault
1 Ludwig Kern PSU 9.600
2T Chad Buczek PSU 9.350
2T Ramon Jackson WM 9.400

Parallel Bars
1 Ramon Jackson WM 9.300
2 Chad Buczek PSU 9.000
3 Steve Tobin PSU 8.800

Horizontal Bar
1 Matt Elson WM 8.750
2 Jerker Taudien PSU 8.700
3 Steve Douglass WM 8.550

All-Around
1 Chad Buczek PSU 53.550
2 Jamie Northrup WM 53.500
3 Matt Elson WM 52.500