April 18, 2013

CHICAGO - Eight members of the UIC men's gymnastics team prepare to compete against the nation's top gymnasts at the 2013 NCAA Championship, hosted by Penn State. Competition is slated to run Friday through Sunday at the Recreation Building in University Park, Pa.

The national qualifier will be held Friday prior to finals competitions, with two sessions set to begin at Noon (CT) and 6 p.m. Each session holds six of the 12 qualifying teams, in addition to the all-around and event qualifiers.

Three teams and the top three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams, plus the top three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor, will advance from each pre-qualifying session to the finals session. Team finals take place Saturday at 6 p.m. and event finals conclude competition Sunday at 1 p.m.

The Flames will be well represented at the NCAAs with eight gymnasts set to compete, the most individuals in the nation. Dan Zerbel and Bryan Pusateri heads to the floor exercise, while Lukasz Adamczyk will compete on pommel horse. Justin Maxwell and Trent Jarrett will be on rings, Zerbel and David Ishida will take to the parallel bars and Zerbel rounds out competition on horizontal bar, with Jason Gaides and Joseph Hodges competing in the all-around.

UIC enters competition following the ECAC Championships, where the team finished in third place with a score of 409.350. In the individual competition, Hodges took first on horizontal bar and Adamczyk and Zerbel came away with second on pommel horse and parallel bars, respectively, while team bests were produced by Pusateri on floor and Gaides on rings and vault.

Check back to UICFlames.com for full coverage of the NCAA Championship.