University of Illinois
NCAA Championships - Team Finals
Illinois Takes Third at NCAA Championships
April 16, 2011 | Men's Gymnastics
April 15, 2011
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Illinois men's gymnastics team placed third at the 2011 NCAA Championships Friday night with a season-high score of 360.150 to secure its highest finish since 2008. Individually, five Illini, including seniors Daniel Ribeiro and Chad Wiest and juniors Tyler Mizoguchi, C.J. Padera and Anthony Sacramento, finished in the top 10 to advance to Saturday night's individual event finals. Mizoguchi placed second in tonight's all-around (90.150) competition to earn his second straight All-America honor.
"I couldn't have asked for anything more out of our athletes than what they gave me today," head coach Justin Spring said. "This is exactly what we planned to do and they came out and did even better than expected. We had our sights set a little higher but Stanford and Oklahoma had bigger start values and had a good meet. We did everything we could have done today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone on this team."
The Illini got off to a solid start on rings, as they tallied their highest score of the season on the event with a 60.100, while Sacramento led the way with a 15.400 for a sixth-place finish. Next up on vault, Illinois had its share of struggles, but Mizoguchi closed out the event with a 16.300, which tied his career best, to place third and the momentum carried over to parallel bars.
In the third rotation of the night, the Illini again set a new season high with a 60.000 on parallel bars, which also was a school record under the FIG open ended code established in 2008. Individually, Mizoguchi (15.600) and Padera (15.300) took first and second, respectively, with career-high scores, while Mizoguchi's total broke his own school record on the event.
High bar was again shaky for the Illini, with Padera and redshirt sophomore Austin Phillips tying for 10th with a 14.600, before the Orange and Blue rebounded on floor with a trio of career bests and another season-high team score. In the fifth rotation, Illinois posted a 61.050 on floor and Wiest paced the squad with a 15.600 for a sixth-place finish. Mizoguchi added a career-high score of 15.350 to tie for eighth and also producing career bests were Padera (15.100) and sophomore Yoshi Mori (15.000).
With a 1.7 lead over Oklahoma heading into the final rotation, the Illini finished the night on pommel horse. Despite a first-place finish by Ribeiro (15.500), it was not enough to hold the advantage over the advancing Cardinal and Sooners, as Stanford recorded a season-high score of 64.550 on vault to take the top spot.
For Stanford (363.450), the NCAA title was the 100th championship in school history and the second in the last three years for men's gymnastics. Oklahoma (361.600) took second, followed by Illinois, California (358.700), Michigan (356.200) and Penn State (355.700).
ESPN2's coverage of the meet will air next Thursday, April 21 at 12:30 p.m. CT. The individual event finals will begin at 6 p.m. CT Saturday night and live results will be available HERE. Visit fightingillini.com for complete results and recap at the conclusion of the meet.
2011 NCAA Championships Final Team Standings
1. Stanford 363.450
2. Oklahoma 361.600
3. ILLINOIS 360.150
4. California 358.700
5. Michigan 356.200
6. Penn State 355.700
Individual Event Qualifiers
Chad Wiest (FX)
Daniel Ribeiro (PH)
Anthony Sacramento (SR)
Tyler Mizoguchi (FX, VT, PB)
C.J. Padera (PB)
