No. 7 Men's Gymanastics Hosts No. 17 Minnesota
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Feb. 9, 1998
UP NEXT: No. 7 Michigan State hosts the No. 17 Minnesota on Friday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. in Jenison Field House.
LAST TIME OUT: No. 5 Penn State scored its season-high of 227.125 to defeat the Spartans in State College, Pa. on Feb. 7. Entering the final rotation, MSU was down 189.525-188.100. State began its parallel bar rotation with three strong routines while Penn State fell twice on the high bar. PSU regrouped and hit three of four high scores to take the meet. MSU scored its season-high on both the pommel horse (37.750) and the high bar (37.700).
Keith Douglas took top honors on the vault with a 9.650. Tommy Housley tied for first on the floor exercise with a 9.650 and tied teammate Ethan Sterk for second on the high bar at 9.550. Kenny Baker took runner-up honors on the pommel horse with a 9.700.
RANKED: The next poll will be released on Feb. 11. In last weeks poll, released Feb. 2, the Spartans were at No. 7 with a high score of 225.750. This weeks opponent, Minnesota was ranked No. 17 last week. In all, six Big Ten schools are ranked in the top 10.
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS: (All rankings by high score) Ethan Sterk has MSUs highest ranking, tied for third on the parallel bars with a 9.750. Sterk is also tied for 13th on the high bar with a 9.650. Ryan Trumpinski is tied for seventh in the country on the floor exercise (9.700) while Keith Douglas is tied for 10th at 9.650. Kenny Baker is tied for seventh on the pommel horse with a 9.700 while Mike Phipps is tied at No. 15 on the rings with a 9.650. Brady Grimm and Douglas are both tied for ninth on the vault with a 9.650.
HEAD COACH RICK ATKINSON: In his 10th season as head coach at Michigan State, Atkinson has a 80-60 overall record. Atkinson has led the Spartans to seven winning seasons in the last nine years.