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Michigan State gymnasts vault over Blue

In sports, a "dual" meet is one that involves two teams, whereas a "duel" implies a battle between two individuals.

This minor change in spelling means a world of difference. In a dual there can be several duels, and one team can dominate the dual while the other manages to win many duels.

All that can get confusing.

However, it is a valid argument for explaining all the positives in No. 20 Michigan's loss, 209.75 to 221.4, in its dual meet with unranked, intra-state rival Michigan State Saturday at Cliff Keen Arena.

For the Wolverines, individuals shined while overall, the team did not.

"For this point in the season, we are doing great. Although it's not the consistent effort we'd like to see, we're getting different highlights from different guys at different times," Michigan coach Bob Darden said.

Two gymnasts in particular that are coming through with important performances for the Wolverine tumblers are junior Jason MacDonald and senior Kris Klinger.

They not only performed well in the floor exercise Saturday (9.3 and 9.15 respectively), they also electrified the bipartisan crowd with their high bar routines. Klinger recorded a 9.6 and took first while MacDonald came in second with a 9.55.

"(They were) phenomenal. They have the talent to take it as far as they want to go. And that's going to be a result of their continued hard training in the gym," Darden said.

"We were very pleased with our senior leadership in Chris Onuska on his premier event, which is pommel horse." Darden said. Not only did Onuska place second in the pommel horse with 9.25, he came in second in the all around with 52.85.

As far as dueling, Onuska and fellow Wolverine Flavio Martins (third in the all around with 50.5) had to contend with the Spartans' Ethan Sterk, who came in first in the all around with 54.45. Sterk finished in the top five in every event except the pommel horse in which he placed in sixth.

Credit should go where it is due. Michigan State took the top four spots in the floor exercise, the top three in still rings, the top three in parallel bars and six of the top eight spots in pommel horse.

A large part of this team effort came from first place finishes by junior Sam Smith, junior Joe Duda, senior Chris Skidmore and sophomore Keith Douglas.

Smith took first in vault (9.25), Duda in both parallel bars (9.6) and rings (9.65), Skidmore in the pommel horse (9.4) and Douglas in the floor exercise (9.4).

Michigan may have won some duels, but the Spartans won the overall battle.

"We always have that rivalry between Michigan and Michigan State. They had a down year a couple of years ago, and now they're in an upswing," Darden said. "We might be in a rebuilding year right now ... the guys know that. We we're working very hard to show that we have the potential, that we do have the base nucleus of what it is all about to be a team in the sport.