2007 ECAC EIGL Championships

PHILADELPHIA - The Temple men's gymnastics team (208.400) cruised to its 15th ECAC-EIGL Conference Championship title on Saturday at McGonigle Hall. Illinois-Chicago placed second (202.700) while Army finished third (200.300). Today's conference title marks the programs first title since 2003.

Temple's team score eclipses the 206.450 season-high score recorded just a few short weeks ago. In addition to the team title, Temple's Luke Vexler, Sterling Kramer, and John Vogtman compiled a first, second and third place sweep in the all-around. Freshman Patrick McLaughlin finished seventh.

The Temple gymnasts came out swinging, literally, in the first rotation with a solid parallel bars effort for a team total of 33.800. Meanwhile, Army was hitting good vaults, but failed to stick the landings that were needed to rake in the big scores. UIC was quite impressive on floor exercise, highlighted by Jeff Bill's 9.150.

Rotation 2 saw Navy come out with some impressive high bar sets for a 33.800, while Army continued to struggle a bit over at parallel bars for a mediocre 32.950 team score. UIC had troubles of their own on pommels, and mustered but a 31.650 total. 

When it was all said and done, Temple had won its 15th ECAC/EIGL conference championship.

Vexler accepted his all-around award from 1948 and 1952 Olympian Clare Schroth-Lomady. The two-time Olympian was actually an Olympic teammate with Vexler's grandmother. After taking part in such a meaningful award ceremony, Vexler was beaming ear to ear as he said, "This team came together today and proved that we have come such a long way in the past year. Everyone was sticking landings today, and that energy carried over from gymnast to gymnast, event to event. I'm so proud of these guys."

Overall Team Results

Temple (208.400) 
Illinois-Chicago (202.700)
Army (200.300)
Navy (198.750)
William & Mary (197.800)
Springfield (182.000)
M.I.T. (176.150)
James Madison (161.00)

The conference title guarantees Temple's presence at the 2007 NCAA Men's Championships. This year's national championships will be held on the campus of Penn State at Rec Hall, April 12-14.

Individual Results

Navy's Adam Stanton captured the pommel horse crown (8.650), Illinois-Chicago's Nikolai Korepanov finished first on the rings (9.400), Army's Eliot Proctor posted the top score on the parallel bars (8.700) and Illinois-Chicago's Tim Morrison was awarded the high bar (9.100) title.  Senior specialist Clay Stewart (9.500) captured the floor exercise crown while sophomore John Vogtman (9.100) won the vault title.  In total, Temple (22-3) shared a combined 14 medals for their individual performances.

James Madison head coach Roger Burke was awarded the ECAC Coach of the Year award while Navy's Craig Holt received the Assistant Coach of the Year honor.  Korepanov was honored as the conference's Rookie of the Year, Morrison garnered Senior-Athlete of the Year accolades and Army's George Rhynedance received the Most Improved Gymnast award.