Feb. 18, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Following a dominating performance over Minnesota last weekend, the Illini men's gymnastics team (7-0, 6-0 Big Ten) moved back to No. 1 in the GymInfo weekly rankings for the third time this season with an average team score of 351.367. Illinois looks to remain perfect this weekend, as it travels to No. 5 Penn State (6-1, 0-1 Big Ten) on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT for the first of three straight road meets.
THE SERIES
Penn State leads the all-time series 48-22, though Illinois prevailed in last year's contest in Champaign, 345.500-339.800.
SCOUTING PENN STATE
Saturday's contest marks Penn State's first team meet since defeating William and Mary, 341.450-321.400 at home on Jan. 31. The Nittany Lions opened the season 5-0 with wins over Army, Navy, Temple and Springfield College, before dropping its lone Big Ten meet of the season at Michigan, 335.650-344.750 on Jan. 24. Seniors Nick Virbitsky and Matt Greenfield and freshman Scott Rosenthal joined fifth-year assistant coach and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Kevin Tan and volunteer assistant coach Vladi Klurman at the 2010 Winter Cup Challenge, Feb. 4-6, though Tan was the lone representative to secure a spot on the U.S. Senior National team.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Live scoring of the meet will be available . The Big Ten Network will broadcast the meet tape-delayed on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 11 a.m. CT.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
Despite tallying lower individual scores against Minnesota, several Illini remain in the top 10 nationally, as juniors Daniel Ribeiro (15.167, pommel horse) and Paul Ruggeri (87.900, all-around) rank second in their respective events and senior Chad Wiest remains at fifth on floor exercise (15.200). Additionally, sophomore C.J. Padera checks in tied for fifth on parallel bars (14.625), while on high bar, freshman Yoshi Mori ranks eighth (14.600) and senior Brian Liscovitz is right behind in ninth (14.483), senior Luke Stannard ranks eighth on pommel horse (14.483) and sophomore Tyler Mizoguchi rounds out the group in ninth in the all-around (86.133). Penn State freshman Felix Aronovich ranks sixth on pommel horse (14.580), while senior Noam Shaham is ninth on vault (15.783).
As a team, Illinois ranks in the top five on all six events, including second on pommel horse (57.167), vault (62.833) and high bar (57.667), third on floor exercise (58.733) and parallel bars (56.983) and fifth on rings (57.893). Penn State is tied for second on rings (58.162), fourth on floor exercise (58.450) and pommel horse (55.362) and fifth on parallel bars (56.200).
MINNESOTA RECAP
Illinois gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about last Saturday night at Huff Hall, as the Illini won on all six individual events, in addition to the all-around, en route to a 350.650-342.150 defeat of No. 7 Minnesota.
Paul Ruggeri led the team with first-place finishes in the all-around (87.200), floor exercise (14.750), vault (16.050) and high bar (16.100), while Daniel Ribeiro won on pommel horse with a score of 14.750. Brian Liscovitz and sophomore Anthony Sacramento rounded out the group with season-high scores and their first event titles of the season, as Liscovitz placed first on parallel bars (14.600) and Sacramento tied on rings (14.650) with Tyler Mizoguchi.
Several other season and career highs also highlighted the night, as Ruggeri's score on high bar was a new career high and school record under the FIG Open Ended "Code of Points" introduced in 2008. Mizoguchi posted a new career high in the all-around (86.450) and tied his career best on vault (15.800), while Chad Wiest tallied a career high on high bar (13.500) and C.J. Padera (vault; 15.600) and Luke Stannard (15.500; vault) topped their previous season highs. Additionally, sophomore Kyle Moe notched a new career high on rings (13.900), as did freshman Yoshi Mori on floor exercise (13.800).
RUGGERI EARNS SECOND NCAA AND BIG TEN GYMNAST OF THE WEEK HONORS
Paul Ruggeri was named NCAA and Big Ten Gymnast of the Week for the week of Feb. 15 after taking home three individual event titles, plus the all-around last Saturday night in Illinois' 350.650-342.150 victory over No. 7 Minnesota. It is the second such honors this season for Ruggeri and fifth Big Ten accolade of his career.
The Manlius, N.Y., native placed first in the all-around (87.200), floor exercise (14.750), vault (16.050) and high bar (16.100) and third on parallel bars (14.300) against the Golden Gophers. His score on high bar was a new career high and school record under the FIG Open Ended "Code of Points" introduced in 2008.
RUGGERI AND MIZOGUCHI NAMED TO U.S. SENIOR NATIONAL TEAM
Junior Paul Ruggeri and sophomore Tyler Mizoguchi were named to the U.S. Senior National team for the first time in their careers, after finishing in the top 10 in the national team selection points program following the completion of the 2010 Winter Cup Challenge, Feb. 4 and 6 in Las Vegas. Ruggeri finished in fifth place with 47 points, while Mizoguchi earned 29 points, good for ninth. Chris Brooks of the University of Oklahoma was the top finisher with 68 points. All-around and individual event champions were determined by a two-day combined score.
Despite being sidelined due to injury, former Illini Wes Haagensen retained his spot on the national team through an athlete petition.
The 17 gymnasts named to the U.S. Men's Senior National team, which also includes Kyle Bunthuwong, Chris Cameron, Jake Dalton, Tim Gentry, Joey Hagerty, Jonathan Horton, Glenn Ishino, Steven Legendre, Danell Leyva, Tim McNeill, Alexander Naddour, Kevin Tan and Brandon Wynn, will be on the team through the 2010 Visa Championships in Hartford, Conn., Aug. 11-14. Based on the Winter Cup results, 10 qualified for the team using the national team points system, and the remaining were selected by the men's program committee from among the Winter Cup participants and athlete petitions.
NEXT UP FOR THE ILLINI
The Illini will make their way to Chicago for the second time this season to face No. 11 UIC at 3 p.m.
