Nick Virbitsky Class: Junior Hometown: Harrisburg, Pa. High School: Central Dauphin Height: 5-7 Position: AA

CAREER HIGHS (NCAA)
Floor Exercise: 9.650 at NCAA Championships (April 13, 2007)
Vault: 8.950 two times - last vs. Michigan (Feb. 3, 2007)

CAREER HIGHS (FIG)
Floor Exercise: 15.550 vs. William & Mary and Navy (March 8, 2008)
Vault: 15.800 vs. Army (Jan. 12, 2008)
High Bar: 14.700 at Ohio State (Feb. 24, 2008)

PENN STATE CAREER
2008: Competed in three events (floor exercise, vault, and high bar) throughout the season...Won floor exercise title in tri-meet with William & Mary and Navy with a season-high score of 15.550...Also captured one second place finish (Army) and two third places in the floor exercise (Temple and Minnesota)...Started the year out fast, placing third in the vault with a season-best score of 15.800...Demonstrated improvement on the high bar throughout the season, earning spots in the line-up at the Big Ten Championships and National Collegiate Championships...Recorded a season-high score of 14.700 in the high bar at Ohio State.

2007: Earned All-American honors on the floor exercise, placing seventh (tie) at the 2007 NCAA Championships with a score of 9.425...Tied for second in the floor at the team finals of the NCAA Championships with a season-high score of 9.650...Won the floor exercise (8.950) and vault (8.850) titles in his first collegiate meet, a dual meet win over Army...Captured the floor title at the West Point Open with a score of 9.550...Placed second in the floor exercise (9.200) in a home win over Illinois...Used a season-high score of 8.950 to place second versus Michigan and third at the West Point Open in the vault.

NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL CAREER
2007: Competed at the 2007 Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, Nev., scoring a 13.250 in the floor exercise and a 15.700 in the vault in the preliminaries.

GYMNASTICS BACKGROUND
Participated at the club level with Artistic Sports Academy Plus...A floor and vault event finalist at the Junior Nationals 2002-06...2006 Pennsylvania state vault champion...Finished 17th (2004) and 22nd (2006) in the all-around at Junior Nationals...Four-time Region VII team member...National champion in the floor exercise in 2002...2006 Regional vault champion.

PERSONAL
Favorite event is the high bar...After gymnastics, he would like to own an Architectural Engineering firm...Selected Penn State based on its perfect blend of athletics and academics...Sister, Vanessa, competes on the gymnastics and track & field teams at UW-Oshkosh...Majoring in Architectural Engineering.

QUOTING COACH JEPSON
"Nick has made some improvements on vault, floor, and on high bar. He has become a steady competitor for us in all of those events. I see nothing but further improvement ahead for him this year. His junior year should be very strong. He has always had good difficulty, but he has been able to clean his gymnastics up. Nick is doing much better in terms of execution than ever before, which should be a big plus for us."