Illinois Wins Its Third Consecutive Big Ten Men's
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COLLEGE GYMNASTICS ASSOCIATION BIG TEN CONFERENCE GYMNASTICS CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS April 1-2, 2011 Compiled by Jerry Wright ILLINOIS WINS ITS THIRD CONSECUTIVE BIG TEN MEN’S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS! See page four for individual event results! UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINIOS end in a risky event, the high bar, came up UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Fighting Illini claimed its third straight with releases. We started the first two routines Michigan freshman Sam Mikulak became Big Ten title in front of its home crowd Fri- with misses and I have to give props to them. the third freshman ever to win the Big Ten day night at Huff Hall. Illinois is the first They got up and finished in an amazing way. conference all-around crown, as team placed school to win three consecutive titles since We jumped out to a good start and finished runner-up at the Big Ten Championships on Ohio State, which accomplished the feat from without our best high bar routine, but it was Friday (April 1) at Huff Hall. 2005-07. The Big Ten Championship is the enough and that's what I expected." T h e 26th in Illinois history, the most among any The Illini began the night on floor, where Wolver- Big Ten school. Chad Wiest (15.500) and Mizoguchi (15.250) ines be- Michigan took second place (352.750), finished in first and second place, respective- gan the MIKULAK followed by Ohio State (350.000), Penn State ly. Next on pommel horse, the Illini earned competi- (349.000), Minnesota (344.400) and Iowa their second-highest team score of the season t i o n (339.300). Tyler Mizoguchi represented the with a 59.250, led by Daniel Ribeiro who starting Illini in the all-around, finishing in third place placed first with a score of 15.850. Yoshi Mo- on the with a score of 85.700. Additionally, nine ri took third with a score of 14.750, while parallel different Illini advanced to Saturday night's C.J. Padera tied for fifth place with a 14.400, b a r s . event finals by finishing in the top-10 plus and Mizoguchi finished in ninth (14.250). R o h a n ties, with at least one Illini qualifying on each In the third rotation on rings, Illinois S a b a s - event. matched its season-best score of 59.250 and t i a n "There was an unbelievable fight tonight were paced by Anthony Sacramento, who s t a r t e d from the whole team," head coach Justin finished in fourth place with a score of the team Spring said. "The team was in the zone all 15.250. Kyle Moe also placed in the top-10, o f f day and then with a pressure situation at the as he tied for ninth with a career-high score of s t r o n g 14.800. On vault, Mizoguchi led the way with with a the second-best mark in school history under clean hit the FIG open- ended code, as he recorded a routine, career-high score of 16.300 to secure a second sc o r i ng -place finish on the event. 1 4 . 1 0 . Illinois maintained its lead over the final The next two competitors suffered missed RUBEIRO two rotations, led by Padera, who placed se- routines, putting pressure on the final three to cond on parallel bars (14.900), while Jordan make their sets. Fourth up, Mikulak changed Valdez, who matched his career-high with a the tide, sticking his double pike dismount to 14.650 to take fourth place. In the final event score a 14.80. Thomas Kelley displayed a of the night on high bar, the Illini remained dynamic routine, starting with a very difficult strong despite some setbacks. Austin Phillips peach-half; unfortunately, he was short on his tied for second place with a score of 15.050 double pike dismount but still put up a count- and Valdez just missed his career best with a ing score of 14.20. Syque Caesar put the team 14.800 to place fifth. back on track, posting a 15.40. (See page four of this report for the individu- al event results.) CONTINUED NEXT PAGE Michigan moved to the high bar for the se- cond in the all-around, tallying a season-high ished in third for Ohio State with a 14.650. cond rotation. Coming back from a three-meet 86.600 to earn his first career Big Ten medal. On floor exercise Treleaven led the team hiatus due to a wrist injury, Devan Cote had En route to his silver medal, Done tied for with a 14.700 to tie for sixth overall followed a solid hit routine, scoring 13.95. Following a second on high bar (15.050), tied for fifth on by Done, who notched a 14.300. missed routine, Ian Makowske showed a parallel bars (14.550) and sixth on vault Advancing to the event finals were: Done-V, great routine with a flawless three-skill release (16.000). PB and HB, Wynn-SR and HB, Echard-PH, combination to score a 15.20. Mikulak came Wynn, the reigning Big Ten and NCAA Behles-SR and V, Laing-PH, Monks-HB and next to tie his season best (14.90), bringing rings champion, continued where he left off Treleaven-FX and V. Michigan fans to their feet after he nailed a last season at the championships by placing connected layed out tkachev to a piked first overall with a season-high 16.150. He has PENN STATE UNIVERSITY tkachev. With another missed routine, pres- now won 18-consecutive rings titles (24 over- Penn State was in the hunt for the Big Ten sure came on last up Kelley, ranked second in all). conference crown heading into the final rota- the nation on the event, to score big; however, tion of the team finals of Friday night's 2011 he suffered two falls. Big Ten Championships but faltered in its WYNN On floor exercise Mikulak, in contention for final event, the pommel horse, and slid to the all-around title, put his hand down on his fourth place. The Nittany Lions finished with second pass, a back twisting one-and-a-half to a team total of 349.000. a punch double-full. Across the gym on rings, The Nittany Lions sat in second place with Mikulak's biggest competitor, Illinois' Tyler just one rotation remaining but a season low Mizoguchi, fell on his dismount. Fifth up, score of 52.100 in the pommel horse, an event Sebastian posted the top score on floor for the that has been their nemesis in recent years, team with a 14.60. ended their title hopes. On the pommel horse freshman A.J. Penn State upheld its status as the No. 2 Schottstaedt tallied a 13.95. Fourth up, Miku- team in the nation in the still rings, as the Li- lak scored a 14.40. Adam Hamers swung a On pommel horse Echard led with a 14.650 ons topped the field by posting their third flawless routine with perfectly squared circles for fourth place overall. Earning a 14.150, highest score of the season. Miguel Pineda to score a career-high 15.50, bringing team- John Laing tied for tenth to earn a spot in his set a career high in the event, scoring a mates to their feet cheering. first event final. 15.600, to place second. Scott Rosenthal fin- On still rings, with only two other competi- Ohio State moved to rings with Wynn lead- ished in third with a score of 15.400. tions under his belt, freshman Matt Freeman ing the charge on the event, Mike Behles was Mackenzie Dow headlined the Penn State led the event off for the team, sticking his second on the team and seventh overall, tally- line-up in the vault, recording the team's high- front double pike dismount to score a season- ing a 14.950. est score in the event this season and an indi- high 14.55. Freshman Alex Bubnov scored a The Scarlet and Gray excelled on vault with vidual career best (16.050) to place fifth. season-best 14.60. Andrew Vance continued five Buckeyes surpassing or tying season or Warren Yang (15.200) and Parker Raque the trend, posting a career-best 15.20 with a career highs en route to a program record on (14.800) led PSU in the floor exercise, finish- strength filled routine, including an incredibly the event as the squad notched a team score of ing third and fourth, respectively. difficult Azarian to Maltese. Next up, Mikulak 63.850. Treleaven and Behles notched 16.150 Felix Aronovich was Penn State's lone all- posted a career-high 14.80. Last up, Kelley scores to tie for first for the Buckeyes and around competitor, finishing seventh with a posted a strong 15.00 to lead the Wolverines third overall. Behles notched his career-best score of 84.400. to their highest rings score of the season, mark on vault. Done improved his career-best 59.65. with a 16.000. Regan followed with a career- ARONOVICH In the final rotation on vault, the highest- high 15.550, while Blaize Monks scored a scoring event, Michigan hit six-for-six, with season-high 15.300. Wynn also competed on Steve Crabtree scoring 15.65. Last up, Miku- vault for the Scarlet and Gray and had a sea- lak, competing his extremely difficult triple son-high 15.100.