Feb. 11, 2006
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -
The University of Illinois Fighting Illini celebrated a 209.650- 191.150 victory over the Temple Owls Saturday night. The Orange and Blue were well represented across the board, with athletes taking home five event titles (PH, SR, V, PB, HB).
Senior Justin Spring again shattered the Illinois record books with a 9.800 on the parallel bars under the new FIG code of points. Spring currently also holds the school records for high bar (9.900) and floor exercise (9.800).
The Buke, Va native is coming off of the late-week announcement renaming him to the U.S. Senior National team.
"Justin is one of those guys that can come to a World Championship and perform better than most of the athletes there," Coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "He deserved it."
The rest of the Illini had some stellar performances throughout the night, most notably sophomore Wesley Haagensen, winning his first all-around competition this season (50.400) in his first attempt.
"Wes did very well tonight," Hayasaki said. "He didn't do as well on high bar as we hoped, but made up for it on his other events." Haagensen finished in the top-three in five events (FX, HB, SR, V, PB).
A force to be reckoned with, the Illini proved that they are coming back into this season full-steam.
"We hit 75% of our routines tonight. That's way better than we did at OSU, and we'll only improve," explained Hayasaki. "We're starting to come into our own and everyone on the team is contributing, not just one guy."
Senior Adam Pummer continued to perform for Illinois this season, winning high bar with a 9.450. Fellow senior and pommel horse specialist Ted Brown also took home another event-title for the men, executing a hard horse routine earning a 9.000.
Sophomores Chris Silcox and Tyler Yamauchi had a strong showing for the men's squad, taking home event titles in rings (Yamauchi) with a 9.300, and Silcox's vault-winning score of 9.150.
The Fighting Illini can be caught in action next Saturday as they travel to Iowa City, Iowa to take on the No. 4 Hawkeyes and No. 5 Michigan Wolverines in tri-meet action.
