April 2, 2004
Results
Champaign, Ill. - The top-ranked University of Illinois men's gymnastics team needed the session's best scores on both floor exercise and pommel horse in order to secure third place in the Friday's second preliminary competition at Assembly Hall. The Illini took third behind California and Ohio State, who also advanced to the finals. They'll now compete for the NCAA Championship at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening. Illinois will be seeking its first NCAA title since 1989.
After a solid start on rings and vault, the Illini struggled on parallel bars and high bar and stood in fourth place heading into the sixth rotation, where the team put up a score of 37.425 to push into third place. They bolstered their top-three finish with an outstanding 37.825 on pommel horse, an event on which the team is ranked No. 1 in the nation. Illinois sophomore Justin Spring took first on floor with a 9.725, followed by a 9.625 routine by Ben Newman on pommel horse, which also rated as the highest in the event. In addition to Spring and Newman, Adam Pummer (9.600) and Bob Rogers (9.250) also had strong performances on floor, while Pete Schostchuk (9.600), Ted Brown (9.300) and Casey Hayasaki (9.300) were all stellar on pommel horse.
"Parallel bars is where our problems got started," said UI Head Coach Yoshi Hayasaki of the team's struggles. "We missed more routines than I expected. Then on the high bar our top two guys, Scott (Wetterling) and Justin (Spring) didn't come through. That really put us in a tough spot which was something that we didn't expect. At the same time, we knew that the last two events, floor and pommel horse, are very good events for us."
"There was a little sense of urgency, but we really refocused because we knew we could finish strong in our last two events," continued Hayasaki. "We started well in our first two events, rings and vault, so we just really need make some adjustments and make sure that we can do better on parallel and high bar tomorrow."
Spring finished in the Top-10 on all five events, taking second on vault with a 9.525, seventh on parallel bars with 8.90, ninth on rings with a career-high 9.225 and 10th on high bar with a 9.10.
The Illini will enter Saturday's team finals with a clean slate. Penn State, Michigan and Oklahoma - who advanced out of Friday's first qualifying session - along with California and Ohio State, will join the Illini in the battle for the National Title. Illinois will begin on the still rings, just as they did on Friday night.
"This competition made us even more hungry and we realize we are going to have to shape up tomorrow," Hayasaki said. "We are going to have to work on correcting those mistakes for tomorrow and they're going to come back stronger, no question about it."
TEAM SCORES Total FX PH SR VT PB HB
1. California 220.875 36.950 36.925 36.700 37.125 36.225 36.950
2. Ohio State 219.625 36.875 36.250 37.050 37.025 34.800 37.625
3. Illinois 218.525 37.425 37.825 36.325 37.125 34.150 35.675
4. Stanford 214.600 36.325 35.775 36.175 36.400 34.675 35.250
5. Minnesota 214.525 36.275 37.175 35.475 37.200 34.000 34.400
6. Nebraska 212.250 36.550 36.025 35.525 36.450 33.600 34.100
FLOOR EXERCISE
1. Justin Spring - 9.725
4. Adam Pummer - 9.60
11. Bob Rogers - 9.25
T24. Scott Wetterling - 8.85
T30. Anthony Russo - 8.75
T39. Peter Shostchuk - 8.35
POMMEL HORSE
1. Ben Newman - 9.625
2. Peter Shostchuk - 9.60
T9. Casey Hayasaki - 9.30
T9. Ted Brown - 9.30
12. Bob Rogers - 9.25
17. Mike Filla - 9.10
STILL RINGS
T5. Ben Newman - 9.325
T9. Justin Spring - 9.225
T18. Adam Pummer - 8.90
T21. Nick Hand - 8.875
23. Scott Wetterling - 8.825
VAULT
2. Justin Spring - 9.525
T9. Adam Pummer - 9.375
T13. Scott Wetterling - 9.225
T24. Anthony Russo - 9.00
T32. Ben Newman - 8.90
T32. Mike Filla - 8.90
PARALLEL BARS
7. Justin Spring - 8.90
T11. Adam Pummer - 8.70
T23. Scott Wetterling - 8.35
32. Peter Shostchuk - 8.20
39. Anthony Russo - 7.60
40. Ben Newman - 7.50
HIGH BAR
8. Adam Pummer - 9.20
10. Justin Spring - 9.10
T11. Bob Rogers - 9.025
29. Nick Hand - 8.350
30. Matt Michalek - 8.30
41. Scott Wetterling - 6.95
