Ohio State senior Andrew Rickly competes on the parallel bars against Michigan on Feb. 4 at St. John Arena. Credit: Walt Middleton, Courtesy of OSU Athletics
The No. 3 Buckeyes finished the 2017 season with a second-place finish on Saturday at the NCAA championships with a readout of 423.700, the team’s highest score of the season.
Oklahoma won its third consecutive national championship with a score of 431.950 followed by Illinois with 422.100. Stanford earned fourth place with 421.500 points and Minnesota and Nebraska finished in fifth and sixth place with scores of 414.200 and 412.900, respectively.
During the qualifying round, the Buckeyes advanced to the team finals after receiving 414.650 points overall on Friday, the second-best score of the evening. Stanford was first with 420.450 points followed by Nebraska who scored 413.050.
At the qualifying round, redshirt senior Jake Martin received a season-best score on vault with 14.350 points. His best performance out of six events was on the high bar where he scored a readout of 14.450 points, the second-best score of the event. Additionally, Brandon Bonanno scored a personal best on vault with a 14.350. Sean Melton scored 14.950 points on rings, the best score of the event.
Redshirt junior Sean Melton, sophomore Alec Yoder, redshirt junior Jake Dastrup, sophomore David Szarvas and sophomore Joey Bonanno received All-America honors. Melton placed fourth in the all-around with a score of 86.400, Yoder placed sixth with 84.950, Dastrup placed seventh on the pommel horse with 14.550, Szarvas placed eighth on pommel with a career-best of 14.500. Lastly, Bonanno scored 14.400 points on floor, finishing sixth.
OSU had its highest finish at the NCAA championships since 2005 when the Buckeyes also finished second.
