The UIC men's gymnastics team welcomed two top-10 teams to UIC Pavilion Sunday afternoon, and came away with a team score improvement of over 11 points from the season-opening Windy City Invitational.  The Flames' score of 366.300 was good for a third place finish, behind #5 Stanford (405.750) and #8 Iowa (396.100).

Rotation 1 – Floor

• Starting out on the floor exercise in front of their hometown fans, the Flames added 3.25 points to their total in the season opener.
• The team's 63.850 outpaced their 60.600 at the Windy City Invitational.
• Asad Jooma led the squad with a 13.150, good for ninth overall.
• Jooma, AJ Hardin, and Satchel Hudson each improved their individual scores by at least 0.6 from the season opener.

Rotation 2 – Pommel Horse

• Victor Bello and Colin Schwartz turned in UIC's top scores with an 11.800 and 11.100 respectively.
• Sam Forbes and Jooma were bunched right behind Bello and Schwartz in the event standings.
• Hudson added 0.650 to his Windy City performance, putting up a 10.650.

Rotation 3 – Rings

• Four Flames posted scores over 12.000.  No Flame scored higher than 11.800 on the rings last week.
• Wes Diveney logged a team-high 12.400.
• Hudson, Steen Haugsted, and Michael Peluso also scored 12.100 or higher.
• The team posted their highest single-apparatus increase from last weekend, totaling 60.350 to outpace last week's 55.950.

Rotation 4 – Vault

• Jooma stuck his landing and scored 14.000, placing 6^th overall.
• Jooma's score was the highest on any apparatus by a Flame.
• Hudson, Bello, and Schwartz were in the middle of the overall standings as the Flames scored 67.500 on the vault, their best apparatus of the meet.
• Colin Schwartz improved his Windy City Invitational score by half a point, putting up 13.350.

Rotation 5 – Parallel Bars

• Haugsted's 13.000 was a top-10 score, as he finished ninth in the overall standings.
• Hudson and Sam Montague turned in improved performances compared to last week, with a 12.100 and 11.900 respectively.
• Though Stanford dominated the bars, the Flames were interspersed with Iowa's gymnasts throughout the rest of the standings.

Rotation 6 – Horizontal Bar

• Montague came through with a dramatically improved performance, scoring 11.750 after registering 10.900 in his first collegiate meet last week.
• Hardin and Jooma were just a hair behind Montague, as each scored 11.700.
• Peluso and Hudson also posted scores that counted toward the team total.

All-Around

• Hudson and Montague were the Flames' two all-arounders.
• Hudson improved from last week, increasing his overall score from 68.200 to 72.450.
• Montague's 68.700 was hampered by a lower score on the pommel horse.

Up Next

• After a couple of weeks off, the Flames will return to action in their first road meet of the season.
• The team will travel to Nebraska for a dual meet Feb. 10.

Post-Meet Reaction

• Head coach Charley Nelson