March 28, 2003

Columbus, Ohio - Four Illini set career highs, but it wasn't enough as Illinois struggled at the Big Ten Championships and placed sixth with a score of 211.850. No. 2 Penn State soared to its first-ever Big Ten title, scoring 220.550, and Ohio State finished second at 218.600.

Junior Scott Wetterling led the Illini, advancing to Saturday's event finals on vault and parallel bars, scoring a 9.250 and 8.800, respectively. He also hit a 9.100 on the high bar and a career-high 9.100 on rings, but finished ninth overall in both, missing both event finals by 0.050.

"Scott has been competing well this year," Illinois coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "He seems to catch on on the high bar, the parallel bars, rings and vaulting."

Freshman Justin Spring set a new career high with an 8.975 on the parallel bars as Illinois opened the meet with a 34.325. The Illini then appeared to be getting untracked after captains Bob Spelic and Bob Rogers each posted 8.900s on the high bar. Spring appeared to be following suit with his routine, but fell awkwardly on his dismount, hitting his head and right shoulder on the mat. The injury forced him to scratch out of his remaining events, and affected the team a great deal, according to Hayasaki.

"Not having him come back to the rest of the competition affected everybody else," Haysaki said. "The Big Ten conference is too tough to not have one of your ace performers competing."

A bright spot for the Illini was the pommel horse, on which they are ranked No. 3 nationally. Sophomore Ben Newman nailed a 9.650 to lead Illinois and sit atop the pommel horse standings entering the event finals. The Illini had an overall score of 35.750, the third-highest pommel horse team score.

Freshman Adam Pummer also qualified for Saturday's event finals, scoring a 9.300 on vault. Pummer had an all-around score of 49.200 to finish 14th out of 15 after suffering a hand injury.

"He didn't have a good day today," Hayasaki said. "He's had some hand movement problems, and he seemed to have a problem focusing today, whether the medicine wasn't kicking in or kicked in too much. But I think we've got to give him a break. He's done so well throughout the season, and he still has NCAA championships left, so he knows he can bounce back for that competition."

Erik Garnett also set a career high on the floor exercise, scoring a 9.075. Garnett broke the mark he set February 22 at Illinois-Chicago, but finished 13th overall.

Team Results	FX	PH	SR	V	PB	HB	Total
#2 Penn State	37.100	36.875	36.975	36.900	35.450	37.250	220.550
#3 Ohio State	37.450	35.400	36.850	37.025	35.975	35.900	218.600
#8 Iowa		36.400	36.525	35.000	36.125	35.000	36.550	215.600
#6 Michigan	35.800	35.600	36.975	36.625	34.825	35.500	215.325
#7 Minnesota	37.050	35.300	34.750	37.100	35.050	35.050	214.300
#5 Illinois	35.125	35.750	34.650	36.400	34.325	35.600	211.850



Individual Results (Illinois and Leader)
Floor
1. Clay Strother		MINN		9.625
13. Erik Garnett		ILL		9.075
25t. Anthony Russo		ILL		8.800
28t. Nick Hand		ILL		8.650
30. Bob Rogers		ILL		8.600
35. Adam Pummer		ILL		7.950

Pommel Horse
1. Ben Newman		ILL		9.650
18t. Bob Rogers		ILL		8.800
20t. Peter Shostchuk	ILL		8.750
25t. Casey Hayasaki	ILL		8.550
35. Adam Pummer		ILL		7.500
36. Scott Wetterling	ILL		7.250

Rings
1. Kevin Tan		PSU		9.725
9t. Scott Wetterling	ILL		9.100
19t. Bob Spelic		ILL		8.650
22t. Ben Newman		ILL		8.600
27t. Nick Hand		ILL		8.300
30t. Adam Pummer		ILL		8.150

Vault
1. Andrew DiGiore		MICH		9.500
5t. Adam Pummer		ILL		9.300
7t. Scott Wetterling 	ILL		9.250
21t. Anthony Russo 	ILL		9.050
31. Erik Garnett		ILL		8.800
35. Bob Spelic		ILL		8.500

Parallel Bars
1. Luis Vargas		PSU		9.300
7. Justin Spring		ILL		8.975
8t. Scott Wetterling	ILL		8.800
16t. Bob Spelic		ILL		8.700
32. Erik Garnett		ILL		7.850
34. Adam Pummer		ILL		7.600
35t. Peter Shostchuk	ILL		7.350

High Bar
1. Kevin Tan		PSU		9.600
9t. Scott Wetterling	ILL		9.100
11. Erik Garnett		ILL		8.100
15t. Bob Rogers		ILL		8.900
15t. Bob Spelic		ILL		8.900
20t. Adam Pummer		ILL		8.700
28t. Justin Spring		ILL		8.350

All-Around
1. Randy Monahan		OSU		54.500
14. Adam Pummer		ILL		49.200