University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
New England Championships
No. 9 Minutemen Win Again, Cruise to New England Championship
March 09, 2002 | Men's Gymnastics
March 9, 2002
AMHERST, Mass. - The ninth-ranked University of Massachusetts men's gymnastics team rebounded from a tough outing last night to record a 210.400, its second-highest team total of the season en route to the New England Championship in front of a standing-room-only crowd here at Boyden Gymnasium on Saturday evening.
Coming off a trip to West Point, N.Y., on Friday night in which the team did not perform well at all, UMass dominated this meet, posting meet-high scores on five of six events and bettering Friday's score by five points.
Individually, the Minutemen were led again by junior Darren Morace (Westfield, Mass.) and sophomore Pat McFarlin (Longmeadow, Mass.). Morace captured the all-around title, recording a 52.300, three points better than his total at Army just one night ago. He has now won all-around titles in nine of 11 meets this season McFarlin, who won the all-around title in West Point, captured three event crowns on Saturday, pommel horse, parallel bars and floor exercise. McFarlin was on his way to his third-straight all-around title before a devastating 7.300 on the horizontal bar, the last apparatus of the evening. Despite the poor showing on the final event, McFarlin finished third in the all-around.
Other standouts for UMass included seniors John Szymczyk (Feeding Hills, Mass.), who shared the floor exercise title with McFarlin, and Ryan Roberts (Albuquerque, N.M.), who placed third on pommel horse and second on parallel bars. Senior Sean Monaco (Braintree, Mass.) and junior Ben Jacobs (Milwaukee, Wis.) also claimed event titles, winning the vault and horizontal bar crowns, respectively.
Springfield finished the evening in second place with a 198.700 team total, fueled by Josh Chasse, Mike Smith, Tim Goetz and Rob Sander, who all finished the top-10 of the all-around competition. Southern Connecticut placed third with a 195.650, led by Curtis Haines' 51.500, second-place finish in the all-around. Vermont and M.I.T. placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Minutemen will enjoy a week off before heading to postseason play. The squad travels to Philadelphia, Pa., on March 23-24 for the ECAC Championships, hosted by Temple.
- UMass -
