The NCAA News - News and Features

August 31, 1998

Academic teams named in men's gymnastics

MIT claims team title; individual honorees include three champions

The College Gymnastics Association has announced its national academic top 20 gymnastics teams and all-America scholar-athlete awards for 1998.

MIT claimed the team title with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.553. It is the fourth time in five years that MIT has won the team title. Illinois finished second, while Ohio State claimed the third spot. Nebraska and Iowa rounded out the top five.

Individually, 51 individuals were honored as all-America scholar-athletes, including Illinois' Travis Romagnoli, 1998 all-around and vaulting champion; Darin Gerlach of Temple, 1998 floor exercise champion; and Gerlach's teammate Dan Fink, 1998 rings champion.

To be eligible to earn individual all-America honors, a student-athlete must earn a minimum GPA of 3.500 (4.000 scale) and attain a minimum NCAA gymnastics scoring average of 8.500 during the 1998 season.

Following are the team and individual honorees, with major field of study, where applicable:

Men's teams

1. MIT, 3.553; 2. Illinois, 3.306; 3. Ohio St., 3.273; 4. Nebraska, 3.159; 5. Iowa, 3.151; 6. Brigham Young, 3.144; 7. Michigan, 3.130; 8. Oklahoma, 3.115; 9. Syracuse, 3.107; 10. California, 3.098.

11. Michigan St., 3.039; 12. Army, 3.070; 13. William & Mary, 3.033; 14. Massachusetts, 2.989; 15. Navy, 2.959; 16. Air Force, 2.919; 17. Minnesota, 2.915; 18. Illinois-Chicago, 2.880; 19. Vermont, 2.854; 20. New Mexico, 2.809.

Men's individual

Kevin Agnew, Iowa, undeclared; Dave Barron, Michigan St., general business; Chad Conner, Minnesota, finance/pre-medicine; Gregory Cook, Illinois, undeclared; Jonathan Corbitt, Illinois, Spanish; John Doss, Army, English; Robert Feinglass, William & Mary, mathematics; Dan Fink, Oklahoma, business-marketing; Brandon Fitt, Brigham Young, geographic information systems/cartography; Darin Gerlach, Temple, mechanical engineering; Benjamin Gompf, Navy, computer science; Brian Hamilton, Iowa, accounting; Benjamin Hayward, Army, foreign languages; J. J. Hershey, Massachusetts, management; Scott Hrnack, Syracuse, biology; Doug Jacobson, Iowa, political science; Geoffrey Jensen, Air Force, aeronautical engineering; Matthew Jensen, Air Force, aeronautical engineering; Ethan Johnson, Michigan, business administration; Adrian Johnston, Iowa, art; Justin Joyce, Illinois-Chicago, French; Matthew Kieffer, Minnesota, finance; Seth Klayman, Ohio State, Jewish studies; Jim Koziol, Nebraska, biology; Joshua Landau, California, human bio-dynamics; Jeff LaVallee, Massachusetts, sport management; Andy Leis, Massachusetts, sport management; Derek Leiter, Nebraska, biological sciences; Peter Lombard, Navy, chemistry; Huy Ly, Oklahoma, pre-medicine; Daren Lynch, Ohio State, pre-physical therapy; Bryan McNulty, Massachusetts, communication; Jeffrey Means, Army, foreign languages; Jason Miller, MIT, computer science; Tal Moscovitz, California, undeclared; Jamie Natalie, Ohio State, exercise science; Alexander Nissen, California, undeclared; J. C. Olsson, MIT, electrical engineering; Brad Panozzo, Illinois, cell and structural biology; Michael Plourde, Massachusetts, exercise science; Stephen Pryor, Massachusetts, exercise science; Rob Rimpini, Brigham Young, exercise physiology; Travis Romagnoli, Illinois, bioengineering; Kevin Roulston, Michigan, engineering; Ethan Sterk, Michigan State, physiology; Troy Takagishi, Michigan St., physiology; Matt Thurber, Iowa, sociology; Brandon Tucker, Illinois, biology education; Chris Weedon, Michigan State, mechanical engineering; Trenton Wells, Brigham Young, public relations; Evgenii Zherebchevskiy, California, business administration.