Jan. 16, 2010

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Complete Results

CHICAGO - The Justin Spring era got off to a great start as the fifth-ranked Fighting Illini men's gymnastics team was victorious in its first meet of the season Saturday night, taking first place at the 40th annual Windy City Invitational for the first time since the 2004-05 season. Illinois tallied an overall team score of 353.750 to top four other top-10 teams. Illini individuals claimed the top spot in five of the six events to defeat last year's champion, No. 4 Michigan (351.350), along with No. 7 Ohio State (347.150), No. 10 Iowa (339.600), No. 8 Minnesota (337.650) and No. 11 UIC (328.750), the host.

"I couldn't be more proud of the team," first-year associate head coach Justin Spring said. "It's a great start to the season. There were some mistakes, but also some moments of greatness."

Leading the way for the Illini was junior Paul Ruggeri, who took first place in the all-around (88.600) and high bar (15.600), placed second on the vault (15.800) and floor exercise (15.550) and tied for fourth on the parallel bars (14.450) along with teammate Tyler Mizoguchi. Senior Chad Wiest, who was competing in his first meet since breaking his arm at the Big Ten Championships two years ago, claimed first place on the floor exercise with a career-high score of 15.650, the second-highest score on the event by an Illini under the FIG open ended code. Newcomer Yoshi Mori made quite a first impression in his Illini debut, placing first on the vault (15.900), while junior Daniel Ribeiro picked up right where he left on the pommel horse with a first-place finish (15.300). Sophomore C.J. Padera also captured his second career title on the parallel bars with a 14.850.

Several Illini placed in the top five on the night, as senior Luke Stannard claimed second place on the pommel horse (15.100), sophomore Tyler Mizoguchi finished in third on the vault (15.750) and fourth in the all-around with a career-best score of 85.650. Additionally, Padera took fifth place on the pommel horse (14.400) and senior Tyler Williamson led the team on the rings with a score of 14.750 to finish in sixth place.

As a team, Illinois had the top score on four of the six events. The Illini had the top team totals on floor (60.200), pommel horse (58.400), vault (62.950) and parallel bars (57.700) to help claim the team title.

"Overall, it was an incredible day," Spring said. "But we won't settle and will get back in the gym to fix mistakes and look to continue to build on this for the future."

The Illini return to action in two weeks at Big Ten foe Ohio State on Jan. 30 beginning at Noon C.T.