Department of athletics, physical education and recreation
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Men's Gymnastics Kicks Off Season at West Point Open
Jan. 20, 2008
WEST POINT N.Y. - MIT's men's gymnastics team opened its 2008 season at the 17th annual West Point Open this past weekend, and the Engineers finished seventh overall in a field of nine squads comprised of both intercollegiate and club teams. No. 11 Temple University finished first among the collegiate teams with a 339.55 and second overall to Team Gattaca (347.10), a club team comprised of Olympic Team members and former NCAA champions. The event was held over the course of Friday and Saturday evenings in Army's Christl Arena, with the team competition taking place on Friday and the individual finals occurring on Saturday. Tech finished with a team score of 306.500, ahead of Mass Gym (304.700) and American Gym (272.450). Navy secured third-place with an overall tally of 332.250, followed by host Army (330.100), Springfield College (321.400) and Arizona State University (313.900). Junior Boris Rasin was the only Engineer to qualify for an event's individual finals by finishing in the top eight during the team competition, as the Brookline, Mass., native tied for sixth-place on the still rings on Friday evening with a score of 14.500. As a result, Rasin competed in the still rings individual competition on Saturday evening, but was unable to secure a medal by finishing in the top six. MIT's top all-around performance came from senior Joshua Coblenz, who placed 18th amongst a field of exactly 100 competitors with an overall score of 78.950. Coblenz's best performance was on the floor exercise, where he earned a score of 13.850, good enough for 16th-place. The native of Springfield, Va., also tied for 20th on the still rings (13.700) and 31st on the high bar (13.050). Junior Tom Caldwell tied for 18th on the high bar with a tally of 13.700 en route to a respectable 22nd-place finish in the all-around (76.300), while freshman Jake Shapiro tied for 24th on the still rings to help earn an all-around score of 75.650, good enough for 25th-place. Rasin finished 23rd on the parallel bars (13.250) and 42nd in the all-around (65.200), despite not competing on the pommel horse. Freshman Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson was MIT's only other competitor at the event, finishing 62nd on the pommel horse (10.400) in his first intercollegiate competition. Tech will return to action on Saturday, Feb. 9, when it will host Springfield College at 1:00 p.m. |
