Big Ten Championships Conclude With Event Finals, All-Big Ten Selections

The second day of the 2012 Big Ten Men's Gymnastics Championships saw individual
event winners crowned and All-Conference teams and award winners announced on
Saturday night. Four schools won event titles, including two each for both Illinois
and Michigan. Paul Ruggeri won both individual event championships for the Illini,
while Sam Mikulak took home two titles for the Wolverines.



Ruggeri took home the event title in the floor exercise, totaling 15.800, nearly
one-half point ahead of teammate C.J. Maestas for the victory. He later won the
vault championship with a mark of 15.500. Mikulak led off the parallel bars rotation
with a 15.450 and watched that score hold up for the victory. He then notched a
15.550 on the high bar for his second event championship. Ohio State's Ty Echard and
Penn State's Craig Hernandez tied for the pommel horse championship, finishing with
matching scores of 14.850. Nittany Lion Scott Rosenthal claimed the still rings
title after posting a score of 15.900.



The individual award winners and All-Big Ten teams were announced following
competition on Saturday, with Illinois claiming all three individual awards. Illini
freshman C.J. Maestas was a double-winner, being voted Big Ten Gymnast and Freshman
of the Year, the second year in a row the awards have gone to the same gymnast;
Michigan's Sam Mikulak won the honors last year.  Maestas is the first Illini to win
Gymnast of the Year since Wes Haagensen in 2007 and the program's second Freshman of
the Year in three seasons, following Yoshi Mori in 2010, who shared the honor with
Penn State's Felix Aronovich. Illinois head coach Justin Spring was voted Big Ten
Coach of the Year for the third season in a row.

The conference also recognized seven sportsmanship award honorees. The
student-athletes chosen are individuals who have distinguished themselves through
sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These student-athletes must also be in good
academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the
sports-competition setting.



The All-Big Ten teams, individual award winners and sportsmanship honorees can be
found below.



First Team All-Big Ten

C.J. Maestas, ILL

Paul Ruggeri, ILL

Broderick Shemansky, IOWA

Sam Mikulak, MICH

Adrian de los Angeles, MICH

Ty Echard, OSU

Felix Aronovich, PSU

Craig Hernandez, PSU

Scott Rosenthal, PSU



Second Team All-Big Ten

Zach Chase, MINN

Misha Koudinov, OSU



Big Ten Gymnast of the Year:  C.J. Maestas, ILL

Big Ten Freshman of the Year:  C.J. Maestas, ILL

Big Ten Coach of the Year:  Justin Spring, ILL



Big Ten Sportsmanship Award Honorees:

Josh Wilson, ILL

Matthew McGrath, IOWA

Stacey Ervin, MICH

Travis Heaver, MINN

Andreas Hofer, NEB

Misha Koudinov, OSU

Scott Rosenthal, PSU