In their final home meet of the season, the UIC men's gymnastics team went toe to toe with #6 Minnesota.  Though the Golden Gophers took the dual meet, 386.050-354.900, the Flames turned in several impressive individual performances and closed the gap with Minnesota from the season's opening week.

"It's tough to see from the score, but this was by far our best meet of year," head coach Charley Nelson said.

It was the Flames' first meet since the NCAA-wide shift from counting the top five of six scores on each event to sending just five competitors out on each apparatus, each of whose score counts toward the team total.  Even still, they shaved over 15 points off of the margin by which Minnesota outscored them in the Windy City Invitational in January.

"There's always a little bit of a drop from five out of six to five-up, and we're seeing that in our team score, but as far as hit percentage and execution, we are moving in the right direction," Nelson continued.  "We had some particularly good days and our landings are getting much better across the board."

Rotation 1 – Floor

• Asad Jooma led UIC with a 12.700 on the meet's first event.
• With Jooma in fifth and AJ Hardin, who scored 12.450, in sixth, UIC had two top-six scores on the floor.
• Matthew Whittington added another score above 12.
• Satchel Hudson and Sam Montague checked in with 11.950 and 11.900 respectively.

Rotation 2 – Horse

• Colin Schwartz led a contingent of Flames with 12.550, his second highest score of the season.
• Schwartz was fourth, with Michael Peluso's 12.250 good for fifth, Satchel Hudson in sixth with 10.900, and Victor Bello took seventh at 10.750.
• With multiple gymnasts outscoring the bottom of Minnesota's lineup on each of the first two events, the Flames trailed by less than 10 points after two rotations.
• "On pommel horse we had a team turnaround from a rough last couple of meets.  If we hit our routines on the horse, the rest of the events will take care of themselves," Nelson said.

Rotation 3 – Rings

• Liam Maddon and Satchel Hudson each scored 11.750 on the still rings.
• "Liam Maddon had the best meet of his career, and we need that week after week because of his talent level," Nelson added.
• Michael Peluso, Bello, and Wes Diveney all contributed scores above 11.
• Minnesota began to take control of the meet by taking the top five spots in the overall standings.

Rotation 4 – Vault

• Jooma, who has won ECAC Specialist of the Week for his vaults three times this season, had a setback by his standards but still paced UIC with a 13.700.
• Hudson was a quarter point below his season high, scoring 13.250.
• The Flames got scores of 13 or higher from all of their performers, including Schwartz, Bello, and Montague.

Rotation 5 – Parallel Bars

• For the second straight meet, Schwartz had the team's highest p-bars score.  He posted a 12.350.
• Hudson tied with Schwartz as the duo shared fifth place.
• After missing two meets, Sam Montague returned to score 11.400.
• Victor Bello and Jooma each finished ahead of Minnesota's fifth highest scorer.

Rotation 6 – High Bar

• Peluso led UIC with an 11.900, closing the meet with a performance that gave him his second highest three-event score of the season.
• James Marden had his second best routine of the year, scoring 11.500.
• Montague and Jooma added scores over 11, bettering Minnesota's base score.

All-Around

• With only five gymnasts competing on each event, no competitor performed on all six apparatuses.
• Hudson competed on five events, sitting out the high bar for the first time of the season.

Up Next

• The Flames will take a short trip downstate to Urbana-Champaign on Friday.
• The short turnaround will pit UIC against Illinois and Air Force in a Friday night meet.
• "We have a chance to finish strong in our last two meets before the conference championship," Nelson said, targeting the April 7 ECAC meet, "before coming back home to host the NCAA Championships."