UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State women’s gymnastics freshman Samantha Musto (Mays Landing, N.J.) has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week, the conference announced on Monday (Jan. 7). Musto made her collegiate debut on Saturday (Jan. 5) at Denver and posted a 38.350 all-around score, good for fourth overall in the meet.
"It’s exciting," said head coach Jeff Thompson. "For the team, we didn’t get off to the start we would have liked. Obviously with half our team having new competitors, there were some jitters there and there were some mistakes we don’t make in practice normally. Sammie was a superstar in three events and she had the second highest score of the meet. Her floor was outstanding, her vault was great, and we are just thrilled that the Big Ten Conference has decided to recognize her with this award."
Musto finished in the top 10 in the all-around and three events in the No. 16 Nittany Lions’ tri-meet with No. 20 Denver and Lindenwood on Saturday. She notched a fourth-place all-around score of 38.350 after placing second on bars (9.875), sixth on vault (9.725) and tying for eighth in the floor exercise (9.550). Musto also placed 15th on the balance beam with a score of 9.200
Musto is Penn State’s first Big Ten Freshman of the Week since Sharaya Musser earned it on March 22, 2010. Penn State next travels to UIC on Jan. 12.
The Penn State women’s gymnastics team is on Twitter. Follow @PennStateWGYM for the inside scoop. Also find updates on the Nittany Lion gymnasts at GoPSUsports.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pennstatewomensgymnastics.