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VARSITY VIEWS RAQUE 'N' ROLL Senior captain spearheads gymnasts' title bid | arker Raque knows he couldn't write the script of his collegiate gymnastics career any better than by ending it with a national championship in his home gym. It helps that he's already seen the finished script. Now the Nittany Lions' senior captain, Raque trained a few years ago with Matt Cohen, who was a senior captain on the 2007 Penn State squad that captured the NCAA championship at Rec RAQUE Hall. Raque was a freshman when it was announced that the national meet would return to Happy Valley this April. You could say he's been looking forward to it. "The buildup to this started my freshman year, and coming into this season we knew we had a pretty solid team," Raque said. "We've got the banners on the wall from the previous national championships, and that's a daily motivator. I've been here three years, and we haven't contributed a banner yet. But we're really confident that we can win it all this year." Titles or no, Raque has contributed plenty. Already an All-American in the floor exercise and vault (and having just missed All-America status on the rings the past two years), he's one of the top all-around threats on a roster that returns seven All-Americans from the squad that finished third at the NCAA meet last spring. He's trying not to assume anything about adding a P 13th national title banner to the dozen that already hang in the White Building practice facility, but you can bet he's motivated by the chance. "I fully expect to be competing for titles in all three of those events," Raque said, "but the team goal is much more important." He's not lacking for help. Among the standouts on longtime coach Randy Jepson's 2013 squad are senior Felix Aronovich, an Olympian for his native Israel in London last summer, and freshman Trevor Howard, who won three events and finished second in the all-around at the 2012 Junior Olympic National Championships. "Felix carries a lot of weight," Raque said, "and even though he's a freshman, we're putting a lot on Trevor. He had a little bit of a knee injury in the preseason, and we haven't seen everything he can do. But he's got a great shot at being on the senior national team one day." Raque said minor injuries slowed the progress of a number of Penn State gymnasts in preseason, but a dominant showing in the Lions' opening meet against Army hinted at this team's potential. Raque figures they should only get better as the season goes on, an assessment he applies to himself as much as anyone. His own preseason was waylaid by a more serious setback: the injuries suffered by his sister Paige, the Penn State cheerleader who fell from a fifth-floor apartment last October and nearly died. "It had a huge impact on me," he said. "I was out of the gym for a week, and even when I got back, I was out of it mentally for another two weeks. I was very apathetic about gymnastics. I just wanted to spend time with my family." Paige was in a coma after the fall, and for weeks Parker made the trip to her hospital in Altoona on an almost daily basis. Paige is back in the family's hometown of Louisville, Ky., and her older brother said her recovery has surpassed doctors' expectations. "She's making great strides, but she still has a long road," he said. "She's got a lot of pain in her feet, some lasting nerve damage, and she's still recovering from her brain injury. But she's doing absolutely amazing." Raque said his sister was able to travel for the gymnastics team's first meet, and she hopes to be back on campus for nationals. As if he needed another reason to look forward to that. Penn State eighth in Directors' Cup With five of its fall sports coaches having earned Big Ten Coach of the Year laurels, Penn State placed in the top 10 of the 2012-13 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup final fall standings for the sixth consecutive season. Coming in at No. 8, Penn State has now finished in the top 10 16 times in the 20-year history of the Directors' Cup. The Lions amassed 323.5 points after reaching the NCAA championship match in women's soccer, finishing tied for third place in women's volleyball, tied for fifth in field hockey, 14th in women's cross country and 32nd in men's cross country. With 398 points, Stanford led the final fall standings and is on pace for its 18th consecutive Directors' Cup title. Following the Cardinal are Michigan (373), Florida State (358.5), Notre Dame (353) and North Carolina (342).

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