Jan. 27, 2007

Complete Results |  Men's Gymnastics vs. Ohio State 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The No. 5 Illinois men's gymnastics team posted a season-high score of 211.050, but the effort was not enough to top No. 4 Ohio State, who defeated the Illini tonight at Huff Hall with a score of 214.700. The Illini were led by the efforts of junior Wes Haagensen, who captured his third all-around title of the season with a season-high 53.350, while the Orange and Blue freshmen continued to improve with six personal bests being set by the class.

"I thought we did very well tonight," head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "We knew that Ohio State was a good team, and we were going to need to perform at our best. I thought parallel bars and high bar were going to be the deciding events, and they were. We are just going to have to keep working on our parallel bar and high bar teams. I thought we competed well through the first four events, but were a little shaky at the end."

Illinois topped Ohio State on the floor (36.850-36.000) and vault (35.650-34.550), while also carding season highs on the floor, rings (36.200), vault (35.650) and high bar (34.750). On the night, the Illini posted two scores of over 9.3000, with junior Tyler Yamauchi posting a 9.350 on rings, while Wiest recorded a 9.350 on the floor.

Haagensen added to his all-around first-place finish with a second-place outing on high bar (9.150) and pommel horse (8.550), tied for fourth on parallel bars (8.800) and third on vault (9.000). Yamauchi also took home an individual title, posting a 9.150 on vault, while he also finished fourth on rings (9.350). On the rings, the Illini swept the top-three places.

Other individual highlights included the dual match debut of freshman Luke Stannard on pommel horse (8.550), tying for second on the event, while fellow freshman standout Wiest registered three personal bests on the night (vault, 9.050; parallel bars, 8.500; high bar, 8.550).

Illinois as a team takes a break from action this coming week, while Haagensen, Yamauchi and sophomore Chris Lung will travel to Las Vegas to compete at the Winter Cup Challenge on Feb. 9-10. The Illini will return to dual match action when they travel to Penn State on Feb. 17.