Feb. 5, 2012

Ellis Mannon had an outstanding showing at the Winter Cup Challenge this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Ellis did a great job,” head coach Mike Burns said. “It was his best meet of the season so far. He only made one mistake, and his performances improved a lot from the preliminary round.”

The freshman moved up from 34^th to 25^th in the all-around standings after the final round of performances. His all-around score improved from a 77.85 to 80.30.

Although he didn’t perform quite as well on the pommel horse as he did during the preliminary round, his 13.95 score landed him a fifth place finish on the event.

If the intense competition was intimidating to the freshman, he didn’t show it.

“He looked very well prepared and relaxed out there,” Burns said. “He wasn’t overly excited or nervous. And most importantly, he executed his routines. It was exciting to have a freshman out there in the finals.”

Mannon should be feeling confident about his accomplishments over the course of the weekend. His future with Minnesota is looking pretty bright.

 “I’m very proud of him,” Burns said. “It was good for our program to get a guy back in the finals. He represented the University of Minnesota extremely well.”

-UM-