Evening Session Results (PDF)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – For the 13th time over the last 14 seasons, the Fighting Illini Men's Gymnastics program has advanced to the Team Finals competition at the NCAA Championships. After missing the cut last season, the Orange and Blue were hungry for another day to compete as a team and made it a reality with a third place finish in today's preliminaries. Illinois saw several individuals post career high scores in today's NCAA Championships evening qualifier while the team also altered the record book as a whole.
"We had very few falls, just a couple mistakes on each event, which I think the team's excited about; a couple of guys want redemption tomorrow," opened Illinois head coach Justin Spring. "It already feels like we won, qualifying back to the Super Six, it's really that we don't have to go again tomorrow, we get to."
No. 6 Illinois will be joined in the Team Finals by No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 Minnesota and No. 8 Penn State.
Sixth-seeded Illinois opened the evening on the parallel bars, where the Orange and Blue worked to a team score of 70.100. Illini senior Max Mayr led the team with a 14.750 reading on event for a share of eighth place overall. Johnny Jacobson turned in the second-best Illinois reading with a score of 14.350 and T-19th place. Chandler Eggleston score a 13.900 while Matt Foster posted a 13.800 and Tom Gibbs tallied a 13.300.
Next on the high bar, Illinois turned in a team effort of 71.350 to climb from sixth place to fourth in the team rankings. Freshman Ross Thompson led the Orange and Blue, turning in a career-high score of 14.600 for a share of 11th place. Alex Diab, posted a 14.550 to take 12th on the event. Mayr posted a 14.350 to finish T-20th.
Rotating to the floor exercise next, the Fighting Illini came in with a team reading of 70.900. Diab led the Orange and Blue efforts, posting a 14.850 on the event to, which led the second-session field at that point and finished eighth across both sessions. Eggleston and Bobby Baker both turned in marks of 14.350 on the event.
Illinois retained their fourth-place team ranking following the third rotation, but slimmed the distance between itself and a spot in the Team Finals to just two-tenths of a point.
The Illini pommel horse crew turned in the best team event score to that point, posting a 72.450. Brandon Ngai led the Orange and Blue with a 15.250 to finish third in the session and tied for fourth overall on the day. Logan Bradley turned in a 15.200 reading for a share of sixth place.
Illinois' pommel horse efforts boosted it into the top-three teams entering the fifth rotation. The Illini owned an overall score of 284.900 at the time, nearly three points better than fourth-place Air Force.
Mayr led Illinois on the still rings with a 15.000 reading and finished sixth in the field. Gibbs tallied a 14.650 for the second-highest Illini reading and T-15th place overall. Diab was just behind Gibbs with a 14.600 effort. Together, the team turned in a score of 72.250.
With just vault to go, the Orange and Blue owned third place, and a spot in the Team Finals, by 2.75 points.
Illinois saved its best for last and finished with the second-best score in program history on vault with a 74.900 collective reading. Blake Martin opened the event for the Illini with a career-best score of 14.800. Diab followed with a career-best of his own at 15.000. Fred Hartville was the third Illini to vault and tallied a season-high score of 14.950. Next, Baker posted a 15.100 and Eggleston anchored the Illini squad with a 15.050 reading. Baker's 15.100 was good for 12th overall on the day.
In the all-around competition, Diab turned in a score of 84.800 for sixth place across the field.
Stanford took first place in the evening session with a combined score of 434.350 while Ohio State took second place at 433.400. Illinois' 432.050 was good for third place and the final spot in Saturday's Team Finals. Iowa finished fourth at 423.250, Michigan took fifth with a 422.150 and Air Force rounded out the field with a 412.650.
Both a team champion and individual event champions as well as an all-around winner will be named during tomorrow's 6 p.m. CT competition. The top eight competitors on each event tomorrow will earn All-American status.
ILLINI NOTES
- In just his sixth appearance for the Illini during his debut season, Ross Thompson led the team on high bar with a career-best score of 14.600.
- Illinois has now advanced to the Team Finals in 13 of the last 14 seasons.
- Two Illini set career high vault scores; Blake Martin with a 14.800 and Alex Diab's 15.000. Fred Hartville posted a new season-high score with a 14.950.
- Second best team vault score in program history of 74.900, setting a new season-best score.
- For the fourth time this season Illinois scored 70 or better on all six events.
