Pickin' Nits, will you be mine?

Welcome to the point of the year when two things start to come full circle.

The first, of course, is reminiscent with Valentine's Day that is this Saturday. What a day to share this day with that one special person that makes you feel all sorts to giddy inside.

Now for the other hopeless portion of this country, this will certainly be a great day of binge drinking, sobbing and thinking about how they will never spend another Valentine's Day alone. Rinse and repeat for 2016.

That sense of hoplesness continues all the way for a lot of people to the extent that those lovely New Year's resolutions get thrown out the door. I have such an optimistic outlook on life guys, I promise.

If you don't believe me, then just picture doing this to me. Let's get to those lovely Nits now!

Gymnastics

The No. 3 ranked and still undefeated men's gymnastics team took down No. 7 Ohio State at Rec Hall on Friday. The 443.600-431.400 takedown of the Buckeyes was led by winning the first five events and capturing six individual titles.

Sophomore Christian McSwain placed first in the floor exercise, senior Craig Hernandez finished first on pommel horse and senior Matthew Felleman won on the high bar. Sources say he was not in fact, 'high'. Only Nick Diaz does that stuff.

The No. 16 women's team took down No. 23 Michigan State this weekend as well by a 197.025-193.425 count. A third Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor was the direct result from scoring 9.850 or better on all of her events against the Spartans.

This Week Ahead: The men will spend Valentine's Day in Champaign against the Illini and the women will host Ohio State.

Swimming & Divng

Junior Shane Ryan took home two first place finishes at the Virginia Tech Invitational this weekend including the 100 back (46.28) and 50 free (20.37). No team scores were kept so Shane I guess you can say, "PutDaTeamOnMyBack."

Only a portion of the women's team took the trek down to Blacksburg. Anna Valentine and Hannah Matheson finished second and third in the 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly respectively.

This Week Ahead: It's preparation time for the Big Ten Championships for both squads this week. The women will be up first starting Jan. 18 in Columbus and the men will hit the pool on Jan. 25 in Iowa City.

Track & Field

I got confirmation from a couple sources this past week that we've got some studs on the horizon this year. Rightfully so after the men's and women's team both captured the Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup in State College this past weekend.

Senior Robby Creese is one of those aforementioned studs. The dude ran a 3:57 mile which is the fourth best in the country this year.

The women's team got first place finishes out of the 1600 and shot put events to get them to a 170.20 score. Cornell finished in second place with 79.5 points. Damn.

This Week Ahead: Damn you, Penn State, and your confusing scheduling tactics. It says there's a meet in Geneva, Ohio, Fayettville, Ark. and Seattle, Wash. this weekend. I'll let you all know what transpires next week! (If anyone knows, feel free to comment below.)

Women's Ice Hockey

I'm starting to figure out this team like Wisconsin basketball. It was another split for the women at Lindenwood this weekend.

The 3-2 win on Friday was led by two Laura Bowman goals in the second period that saw Penn State get out to a 3-0 lead. The 4-2 loss didn't have a lot of positives to take away from other than another Laura Bowman goal.

Junior Shannon Yoxheimer did tally her 100th career game played on Saturday.

This Week Ahead: The last true road series of the year take Penn State to Mercyhurst on Friday and Saturday.