Jan. 23, 2008

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Illinois men's gymnastics team improved in the rankings this week, moving up two spots to No. 6 in the year's first GymInfo poll that is decided by team averages, announced the online polling organization, www.troester.com/gym. The Illini, who opened the season ranked No. 8, wowed the competition at the 2008 Windy City Invitational to start the season, finishing second behind only then-No. 1 Stanford. In its last outing, Illinois dropped its home opener to Minnesota, falling .550 short of defeating the Golden Gophers last weekend.

The Illini also rank in the top 10 in the country on every event, including a top-five status on floor, pommel horse and still rings. On floor, one of the top perennial events for the Orange and Blue, the Illini boast a two-meet average of 58.900, good enough for fifth. On rings, Illinois features an average of 56.000 (fifth), and marks its highest national ranking on pommel horse of fourth, showing extreme improvement from year ago when the apparatus posed its hardships for the Illini all season long.

Behind the efforts of sophomore Luke Stannard and freshman Daniel Ribeiro, who are ranked 13th and third individually on the apparatus, respectively, the Illini have turned things around on horse to card a two-meet average of 55.800 on the young season.

Individually, freshman Chad Wiest leads the way on floor; ranked third in the nation (15.450), while senior co-captain Michael Boyer comes in at 12th (14.950) followed by Tyler Yamauchi (14.900) in 13th. On rings, co-captain Yamauchi is 13th (14.725), while senior Wes Haagensen is 16th (14.575). Haagensen also is tabbed eighth on parallel bars (14.650).

Rounding out the Illini in the rankings is freshman Paul Ruggeri, who has his named notched in the polls on three different events, his highest a seventh-place showing (15.700) on vault, followed by ninth (83.400) in the all-around and 13th (14.400) on high bar.

The Illini return to the gym when they take on No. 8 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, Jan. 26 at St. John Arena. Illinois is looking to stop their previous trend against the Buckeyes, who have won 12 out of the last 18 meetings between the two programs.