University of Illinois
UIC w/ Air Force & Stanford
No. 3 Illini Finish Second at Quad Meet in Chicago
March 4, 2011 | Men's Gymnastics
March 4, 2011
CHICAGO - The third-ranked Illinois men's gymnastics team placed second in its first quad meet of the season Friday, tallying a score of 351.600 to finish behind No. 2 Stanford (357.800) and ahead of host No. 13 UIC (340.200) and No. 12 Air Force (338.000). Seniors Daniel Ribeiro and Chad Wiest each collected individual event titles, as Ribeiro tied for first on pommel horse (14.800) and Wiest tied for first on vault and matched his career best with a score of 15.900.
"There's been highs and lows for us this season and right now, there's far more lows than highs," head coach Justin Spring said. "The consistency just isn't there. We only hit on all four routines on vault tonight. We're doing things well in practice, but it's not carrying over into the meets. We have to just keep plugging away and rise to the challenge."
Several Illini posted career-high scores en route to top-five finishes, including junior Anthony Sacramento (2nd; 15.500) on rings, freshman Alex Varga on floor (2nd; 15.000) and vault (T-4th; 15.700), redshirt sophomore Austin Phillips (3rd; 14.700) and freshman Cameron Rogers (T-5th; 14.400) on parallel bars, and Wiest (5th; 14.500) and freshman Jordan Valdez (3rd; 14.900) on high bar.
Additional top-five finishes were recorded by Wiest on floor (3rd; 14.800), sophomore Yoshi Mori on pommel horse (4th; 14.600) and vault (T-4th; 15.700), and Mizoguchi on rings (5th; 14.900) and all-around (2nd; 86.300).
The Illini return to action next weekend for a tri-meet in Columbus with Ohio State and Nebraska at 6 p.m. CT. The meet will air tape-delayed on the Big Ten Network on Saturday, March 19 at noon CT.
