April 2, 2011
Complete Results
CHICAGO - The UIC men's gymnastics team successfully defended their ECAC championship on Saturday afternoon, earning a third-consecutive title at the Physical Education Building.
The Flames bested the competition with a season-high 346.900 team tally, taking the top spot in the six team field. Temple (338.300), William & Mary (336.400), Springfield (333.200), Navy (326.700) and Army (324.300) rounded out the team competition.
UIC continued to build off one solid performance after another and steadily pulled away from the competition with each rotation.
"It's nice to have done it at home, now three in a row," said head coach Charley Nelson. "The guys today were inspired, they were on a mission. They've hit like that in practice, but to all be on the same page on the same day is something."
While the Flames only had two of the top individual event performances on the day in Dan Zerbel (parallel bars) and Aaron Eyster (vault), UIC dominated the top ten heading into Sunday's individual event finals with eight moving on to tomorrow's competition.
"I think there will be some tired guys tomorrow as there was so much energy put out on the floor today," said Nelson. "It's not just what you put on the floor during your own routines, but the energy you create while everyone else is performing, too. But we've been training for this, that if you do well on Saturday, you go to Sunday. "Were going into tomorrow looking for some more championships, which in some cases will be UIC battling UIC, which is pretty exciting."
Kyle Voissem led UIC in a 1-2-3 sweep in the all-around competition with a 87.700 score, his highest turnout of the year. Neal Thompson (85.300) and Joseph Hodges (84.600) rounded out the Flames contingent for Saturday's competition.
"For the top three to sweep the all-around is just amazing," said Nelson. " All of those guys stepped up--everyone, from top to bottom...Justin Maxwell, who does a couple of events, or Dan Hutton, who just goes on parallel bars really got the ball rolling for us and started to make things happen.
"While there are those guys on the award stand today and those in the event finals tomorrow, that isn't the whole story. It's a whole team effort."
The third consecutive ECAC crown for the Flames is a program first.
"I told them at practice last week that if we do the best that the team has done at all different separate meets throughout the year, we will be looking pretty good come the conclusion," said Nelson . "They all did it today. I can't say enough about them, I'm so proud."
The weekend will conclude with the individual event finals tomorrow, beginning at 1p.m.
Sunday Individual Event Qualifiers
Kyle Voissem - Floor, Pommel, Rings, Vault, Horizontal Bar
Dan Zerbel - Floor, Parallel Bars
Neal Thompson - Floor, Pommel, Parallel Bars, Horizontal Bar
Lukasz Adamczyk - Pommel
Justin Maxwell - Rings
Aaron Eyster - Vault
Ned Kamimura - Vault
Joseph Hodges - Parallel Bars, Horizontal Bar
