March 7, 2003

Los Angeles, Calif. - The seventh-ranked Fighting Illini placed second at the Peter Vidmar Invitational on Thursday with a score of 208.300. No. 4 California won the meet with 210.925 points. Arizona State (189.600), Cal-Santa Barbara (182.750) and Washinton (180.150) also took part in the meet. ASU and Washington are both club programs.

Head Coach Yoshi Hayasaki said that tough judging, combined with the different, European style of equipment that the meet used, led to uncharacteristically low scores for all teams.

"We really struggled on the pommel horse, which has been our best event so far," said head coach Yoshi Hayasaki. "But the new equipment is no excuse, we should have been able to adjust to it. I think we will come back with a good score at the Southwest Cup on Saturday."

One person who didn't have much trouble adjusting is freshman Justin Spring. The Burke, Va. native, who came into the week ranked fourth in the country on the floor exercise, won the event Thursday with a season best score of 9.650. He also won his third vault title of the season by scoring a 9.35 and placed second on the high bar with a 9.100.

Junior Erik Garnett also performed well for the Illini winning the parallel bars for the third time this year with a career best score of 9.000. Scott Wetterling finished third on both the vault (9.150) and parallel bars (8.850 - season high). Senior co-captain Bob Rogers placed third on the floor exercise (8.850), while Ben Newman paced the Illini on the pommel horse by scoring an 8.75 to take third.

The Illini now head to Tempe, Ariz for the Southwest Cup on Saturday, March 8. They will face No. 2 Penn State and No. 10 Temple in addition to Cal-Santa Barbara and Arizona State (club) at the meet.