April 5, 2002

NORMAN, Okla. - The Fighting Illini took ninth place on Thursday at the NCAA Championships, however, five of head coach Yoshi Hayasaki's athletes moved on the individual event preliminaries, held tonight at the University of Oklahoma's Lloyd Noble Center.

Seniors J.G. Ketchen and Sean-Paul Crawford each extended their Fighting Illini careers by one day. With a 9.400, Ketchen advanced on the still rings. Crawford advanced on the floor exercise, scoring a 9.275. Crawford narrowly missed the cut on the still rings, scoring a 9.250. Ketchen also competed on the parallel bars, recording an 8.550.

In his first trip to the NCAA Championships, freshman Peter Shostchuk scored a 9.500 on pommel horse to advance to the individual event finals. The Glen Gardner, N.J.-native recorded the fourth-highest score of night on the event to move on. Shostchuk also competed on the parallel bars where he received an 8.300.

"Our individuals competing today did an excellent job, especially our seniors. I'm very happy that they were able to move on in their senior years," head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "It is great to have three guys make the finals in this tough field. The other two had a good week. Everybody did a good job."

Sophomore Bob Rogers qualified for the prelims on three events. He started the night on the high bar where he scored a 7.800. He earned an 8.400 on the pommel horse and topped of his scoring with an 8.825 on the floor exercise.

Freshman Ed Seward also experienced difficulties on the high bar, scoring an 8.150.

Oklahoma won the team title with a score of 219.300, while Ohio States Raj Bhavsar took the all-around title (55.875). The individual event finals will be held on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Lloyd Noble Center on the University of Oklahoma campus.

RESULTS
Floor Exercise	Pommel Horse		Still Rings
Crawford  9.275	Rogers  8.400		Crawford  9.250
Rogers  8.825	Shostchuk  9.500		Ketchen  9.400


Parallel Bars	High Bar
Ketchen   8.550	Rogers  7.800
Shostchuk  8.300	Seward  8.150