Dec. 8, 2007

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois men and women's gymnastics squads teamed up to open their seasons with the annual Mixed Pairs Exhibition at Huff Hall tonight. Each pair of gymnasts performed their top events in front of more than 600 electric fans, combining four routines' scores to make up their team total. The pair of freshman Allison Buckley and sophomore Luke Stannard took home the title with a combined score of 49.875, while seniors Michelle McGrady and Tyler Yamauchi claimed second (49.250). Rounding out the top three were senior Krystal Melcarek and freshman Paul Ruggeri, tabbing a 48.850.

"The freshmen came out and performed like we expected them to in front of a great crowd," head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "Paul had two great sets on high bar and floor exercise. Roger Pasek did a great job on floor and Daniel Ribeiro performed well on pommel horse. Overall, it was good to see our freshmen come out strong and put up scores that can count for our team. There also was no question our seniors came out tonight and performed well too. We definitely saw their experience coming through in their routines. Tyler Yamauchi had a great set on rings and Ross Bradley was great on high bar. I think the senior leadership is already showing, and we didn't even see Chris Silcox tonight or Wes at his best."

The format of the meet pitted celebrity judges from various Illinois varsity teams evaluating the women on their four events, while the men used official meet judges to complement their new open-ended scoring system that replaced the traditional 10-point scale that is still used by the women.

Sophomore Sarah Schmidt and McGrady notched the night's only perfect 10's during the floor exercise and vault, respectively. Junior Lindsey Smith came close to the mark with a 9.950 on her floor exercise routine, while sophomore Nicole Cowart and freshmen Melissa Fernandez and Samantha Perino each garnered 9.900s on their respective routines.

For the men, freshman Paul Ruggeri wowed the audience in his debut, carding a 14.600 on the high bar and a 15.000 on his floor routine. Stannard carded an almost flawless set on pommel horse for a score of 15.000 followed by a 15.200 on floor exercise to help claim the title. Yamauchi also had an unbelievable night of his own on the rings, garnering the top score of the night of 15.600.

"Overall, we had a favorable outcome tonight," head women's gymnastics coach Bob Starkell said. "The team worked together as a group and I could see leadership from all classes. We had some good routines with a lot of improvements that we have been working on, but we also found some new things that we can work on when we get back into the gym. The one thing that I think the girls seemed to notice is that all the things you do in practice can change when you come into a different venue and scenario. Therefore, when we go back to practice, we are going to try to make sure that all our skills are very refined."

Both squads now kickoff the regular season on the road. The women open things off on Friday, Jan. 11, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., against the University of Alabama at 7:30 p.m., while the men head to the Windy City Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, Jan. 12, in Chicago.

The men and women open their home schedules with a co-ed meet on Saturday, Jan. 19. The women will take on Ohio State, while the men face Minnesota, with action kicking off at 7 p.m. at Huff Hall.