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Men's Gymnastics
No. 3 Illini Break School Record in Rout of No. 8 Gophers
Jan. 25, 2004
Champaign, Ill. - It all finally came together for head coach Yoshi Hayasaki's third-ranked Fighting Illini on Sunday afternoon. His squad put up a school record score of 218.900 to easily defeat No. 8 Minnesota (208.250) in front of 715 fans at Huff Hall. Illinois' score topped the old record of 217.675, which was set at last year's NCAA Championships. The records are under the new Federation of International Gymnastics (FIG) scoring rules, which were put in place in 2001. Illinois' all-time school record of 230.000 was set vs. Ohio State on 3/6/99 under the old, less strict scoring system. "Watching this team practice from the fall and coming into the season, I knew that this team was capable of scoring this high or even better, but we had not been able to do it in competition until today," said a pleased Hayasaki after the meet. "I think being at home helped everybody. We were very happy to be back on our home court and to be able to feel comfortable with the gym and with the crowd." Several Illini gymnasts excelled on the afternoon, including Justin Spring and Ben Newman, the nation's top-ranked athletes on the floor exercise and pommel horse. Spring won a pair of events for the Orange and Blue, taking his third consecutive floor exercise title with a score of 9.500, while also winning the parallel bars with a 9.100. Newman, the defending Big Ten pommel horse champion, won the event for the second time this year with a career-high and school-record tying score of 9.800. Illinois' other event champion was Scott Wetterling, who scored a 9.550 on high bar to take the title. The Illini topped the Gophers on all six events, and recorded season-high scores on five of those six. The team's pommel horse score of 37.900 shattered the old FIG school record of 37.400 set at the 2003 NCAA Championships. Newman led the way on horse, but senior co-captain Bob Rogers (9.750, career-high), newcomer Ted Brown (9.400 career-high) and two-time All-American Peter Shostchuk (8.950) all turned in spectacular performances as well. Illinois also set season-highs on rings (35.350), vault (37.100), parallel bars (35.900), and high bar (36.500).
Overall, the Orange and Blue set or tied 20 season-highs and five career-highs. Senior Scott Wetterling had his best meet of the season. In addition to his win on high bar, he also set season-high scores each of his other four events, which were floor (8.550), rings (9.000 - third), vault (9.350 - third), and parallel bars (8.600). Sophomore Adam Pummer had a big day as well with four season-highs. He set season-bests on floor (9.000), rings (8.700), parallel bars (9.050 - second) and high bar (9.450 - second) to go along with his fourth-place vault score of 9.325. Other Illini who recorded season best were: Justin Spring (vault, 9.425 and high bar, 9.350), Anthony Russo (parallel bars, 8.800), Ben Newman (rings, 9.100), Nick Hand (rings, 8.450) and Erik Garnett (parallel bars, 8.950).
"Today, everybody performed better, there's no question about it," said Hayasaki. "Obviously Justin did well, on the events he competed, and Adam raised his level this weekend as well. Scott is finally back to where he finished off at last year's NCAA championships, especially on high bar and rings. We had a good performance from Anthony Russo on p-bars today. Nick Hand is coming back on rings, and Erik Garnett is being very consistent. Everybody is starting get where we want them to be, but we still have room for improvement." The Illini now travel to Columbus, Ohio for a dual meet with the second-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes next Saturday, Jan. 31 at 6 p.m. central. The Illini women's team will also be taking on the Buckeyes at the meet.
TEAM SCORES
ILLINOIS SCORES (and event winners)
Pommel Horse
Still Rings
Vault
Parallel Bars
High Bar
All-Around |
