COLLEGE GYMNASTICS ASSOCIATION BIG TEN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS CONFERENCE CGA WEEKLY REPORT April 3-4, 2009 By Jerry Wright University of Illinois University of Daryl Marshke/Wolverine Photo Michigan a great job on their home performance on the still rings to claim the title. floor and they had a good They did just that, as Mizoguichi started the Illini performance." off on the right foot, scoring an impressive 14.75, a Illinois began the cham- career-high. Nick Stango made his last Big Ten pionships on vault, where they tallied a 61.35. Championships count, posting another career high NOTE: To say there was fireworks at the Paul Ruggeri led the way, coming in fourth with a for the Illini with a 14.70. Next up, Tyler William- Big Ten Meet would be an understatement. score of 15.60, followed by Roger Pasek’s score son put together his strongest ring set this season, First Illinois was announced as the outright of 15.35 and freshman C.J. Padera's 15.30. The scoring a 15.00 to tie for fifth place on the event. winner and then an apparent change in the Orange and Blue led the first rotation by 2.5 points Freshman Anthony Sacramento posted his second- judges scores gave Michigan an additional 0.6 ahead of Ohio State and Michigan. highest rings score of the season, 14.65, to give the points and a tie for first. Then Chris Cameron The Illini moved on to parallel bars in the second Illini the final push for the Big Ten title. was announced as the AA champion and later rotation where they scored a 58.20. Freshman Ty- Illinois scored a season-high 59.100 on rings and his teammate Thomas Kelley was named ler Mizoguichi hit a career-high 15.05 on p-bars for that, combined with Michigan's 56.750 on parallel champion with Cameron runner-up. first place to lead the Orange and Blue. Ruggeri bars, was enough to give the Fighting Illini a share was not far behind, finishing in fourth place, with a of the title. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 14.75. Brian Loscovitz tied for eighth place with Individual Event Qualifiers:Paul Ruggeri - FX, a score of 14.35 . VT, PB, HB, Daniel Ribeiro – PH, Luke Stannard- Illinois came from behind to win its first Big Ten In the third rotation, the Illini headed to high bar PH, Chris Lung – PH, Tyler Williamson – SR, team championship since 2004 in thrilling fashion where Ruggeri, the reigning NCAA champion on Tyler Mizoguchi - PB, FX, SR, Brian Liscovitz - Friday night at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich., the event, scored a team high 15.45 to place sec- PB, HB. behind a team score of 357.10. The Illini made a ond. Liscovitz tied for fifth on high bar with a In the event finals: FX: Ruggeri-1st, Mizoguchi- dramatic comeback in the final rotation to share the 14.55. The Illini as a team scored a 58.10 on the 7th; PH: Stannard-1st, Padera-3rd, Lung-4th, title with Michigan. The Orange and Blue trailed event. After three rotations, the Illini sat in the Ribeiro-6th; SR: Williamson-4th, Stango-6th; V: the Wolverines by 2.35 points heading into the last middle of the pack with a team score of 177.65, Ruggeri-4th; PB: Ruggeri-1st, Mizoguchi-7th; HB: event and strung together their highest total on still behind Michigan (179.25) and Ohio State (179.05). Ruggeri-3rd, Liscovitz-8th. rings this season, 59.10, to catch the hosts and Ruggeri continued to lead the Illini into the claim the Big Ten Championship trophy. fourth rotation as they moved to the floor exercise. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN "It was a classic Big Ten finish," Illinois head He scored a 15.30, the second-highest score of the For the first time since 2000, the University of coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. "The best part about night on floor. Mizoguichi and Daniel Ribeiro each Michigan earned the Big Ten title -- sharing the tonight was that our guys were behind all evening scored 14.95's to add to the Illini team total of honor with Illinois with a score of 357.10 -- on and didn't give up. They kept fighting. It was so 60.05. Ruggeri ended up taking fourth in the all- Friday night (April 3) at Crisler Arena. The Wol- great to see our last three events coming back to around competition with a score of 86.85. verines preseason All-Big Ten honorees, Thomas win the title. I expected a close competition, but I In the fifth rotation, the Illini headed to their top Kelley and Chris Cameron, outperformed the en- didn't expect it to be this close. We are champions team event, pommel horse. Ranked No. 1 in the tire field, closing the night in first (89.35) and sec- and neither team had to lose. I think Michigan did nation heading into the championships, the Fighting Illini did not disappoint the KELLEY faithful fans who traveled to Ann Arbor, posting a score of 60.30, the highest team total on the event all eve- ning. Ribeiro and Luke Stannard ranked No. 1 and 2 in the conference, posted scores of 15.70 and 15.40 on the event for first and second place. RUGGERI The Illini were in second place heading into the final rotation, 2.35 points behind the host Wolverines, and Continued next page would need a spectacular See page 3 for individual results ond (89.10) in the all-around, respectively. Two Buckeyes finished in the Top 6 of the all- Friday night at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. Michigan ended up with the most individual around, earning All-Big Ten status. Jake Bateman The fourth-place finish was one notch above the event qualifiers (10) with Kelly (FX, SR, PB, HB), placed third with an 88.55 while freshman Philip Gophers' 2007 fifth-place finish. Minnesota fin- Cameron (FX, PH, SR, PB, HB), Ralph Rosso Onorato took sixth with an 82.65. Onorato’s tally, ished with a total of 348.000 points. Michigan and (FX, SR), Adam Hamers (PH), David Chan (PH) the best by a rookie at the meet, helps his campaign Illinois tied for the team title with a score of Paul Woodward (PH), Phil Goldberg (SR), Ben for freshman of the year honors. 357.100. Baldus-Strauss (V), Ryan McCarthy (PB, HB), and In the all-around competition, Minnesota's Aaron Joe Catrambone (HB). Fortunato took fifth place, good enough to earn All As a team, Michigan tabbed a season high in its BATEMAN -Big Ten honors. He was seventh in the all-around first three rotations of the night -- horizontal bar at last year's conference championship. (59.30), floor exercise (60.15) and pommel horse Advancing to Saturday's individual event finals (59.80) and shattered U-M season individual bests were Cole Storer (floor exercise, vault); Kit Beik- on the same three events. mann (pommel horse); Aaron Fortunato (parallel Cameron earned a new career high on high bar bars, high bar); and Russell Dabritz (parallel bars). with a 14.55, while Kelley set a career best -- as The Gophers opened Friday's competition on the well as a team season high -- on the apparatus with pommel horse and posted one of their top three a evening-high of 15.65. Despite the high marks, scores of the season on the apparatus. Beikmann, a the Wolverines stood at fourth place at the end of pommel horse specialist, led Minnesota in the the first rotation. Ohio State began the championships on rings event with a 14.75 score. All told, the Gophers put The squad jumped up a spot into third after with a first-place 59.95 total. The Buckeyes swept together a 56.65 score on the apparatus. strong performances on the floor in the second the Top 3 finishes on rings. Brandon Wynn, In the second rotation, the Gophers moved on to rotation, possessing a running total of 119.45. U-M ranked first in the Big Ten and third in the nation the event they have struggled most with this season trailed second-place Illinois by a tenth of a point at heading into the event, led the field with an event- -- the still rings. The Gophers tallied a 57.10 on the 119.55 and first-place Ohio State led the field at winning 15.15 mark. Onorato and Bateman started rings, their lowest total on the apparatus since late 122.05. Cameron garnered an evening-high 15.450 their all-around campaigns, taking second and January. Dabritz led the way for Minnesota with a on floor exercise -- -- while Kelley chipped in a third, respectively. Onorato posted a 15.10 while 14.60. From there, Minnesota moved on to the 15.20. Bateman tied for third with a 15.05. vault, one of their strongest events this season. The Cameron then tabbed a 15.20 on pommel horse.. In the second rotation, the squad earned a 62.10 Gophers has posted four consecutive scores of Chan set a season best (15.00) and Woodward on vault. Leading Ohio State with a third-place 62.45 or better coming into the Big Ten Champion- earned a career-high 15.00 on the apparatus to help score of 15.70 was Onorato while Pejman Ebra- ships. But Friday's total came in at 61.50. Storer's push the Wolverines to the top of the standings himi tied for fifth with a 15.55.