March 13, 2010

Complete Results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The third-ranked Illini men's gymnastics team (10-1, 8-1 Big Ten) suffered its first loss of the season Saturday afternoon, falling just one point short against No. 4 Michigan (8-3, 6-1 Big Ten), 359.650-358.650 at Huff Hall. Despite the loss, Illinois came away with five of six individual titles and its team score was a new season high. Additionally, the Illini also posted season highs on pommel horse (60.100), rings (59.200) and high bar (58.850).

"It's bittersweet," associate head coach Justin Spring said of the loss. "Once again, we continue to up our score, but we are so much better than what we showed today. We are a low 360 team, but we just keep having some big mistakes here and there. It doesn't help when one of our star guys (Paul Ruggeri) has a really rough day. He didn't start off well and was worried about his knee, but he was able to come back and hit one event for us and that was kind of all he had. But we had a lot of mistakes on a variety of places and our anchors had some big misses. We have three weeks until the Big Ten Championships and we're going to do everything we can to get ready."

Senior Chad Wiest won his second event title of the season on floor (15.250), while fellow senior Luke Stannard captured his third straight title on pommel horse with a career-high score of 15.800 and freshman Yoshi Mori claimed his second title on vault (15.850). Sophomore Tyler Mizoguchi tied his career high on parallel bars (15.050) to place first on the event and also beat out Mori for top honors in the all-around (87.800) and junior Paul Ruggeri, who battled a knee injury throughout the meet, closed out the day with a first-place finish on high bar (15.550).

Also placing in the top three were Mori on pommel horse with a career-high score of 15.100, good for third place, while senior Tyler Williamson led the team with a third-place finish on rings (15.150), sophomore Tyler Mizoguchi tied for second place on vault (15.800) and senior Brian Liscovitz took third place on parallel bars (14.750).

The Illini conclude the regular season next Saturday, March 20 against No. 11 UIC at 3 p.m. at Huff Hall. Seniors Brian Liscovitz, Kyle Padera, Andres Saavedra, Luke Stannard, Chad Wiest and Tyler Williamson will be honored at the meet for their accomplishments over the last four years.