UIC had its most consistent meet of the season and turned in a season high 369.250 on Senior Day at Credit Union 1 Arena Sunday.  A strong start kept the Flames neck-and-neck with William & Mary through two rotations, but the Tribe pulled away later and posted a score of 381.600.

"In many respects, this was our best meet of the year, both as a team and for certain individuals," head coach Charley Nelson said.  "Definitely on pommels, we exorcised some demons and saw the hard work that we've been putting in in the gym pay off.  For guys like [Colin] Schwartz, [Sam] Montague, and a couple of others, they just needed to have a solid meet to get the scores they needed to qualify to go downstate [for the NCAA Championships at Urbana-Champaign].  They accomplished that today and we have another strong performance to build from as we continue down the stretch."

Perhaps the most improvement came on pommel horse, where the Flames had their lowest score of the six events in each of the last two meets.  Sunday, UIC had a season high total on pommels and outscored the Tribe on the apparatus.

Sam Montague set two career highs and won the all-around.  Colin Schwartz won pommel horse.  The team's lone senior, captain Wes Diveney, was honored after the meet for his four years of dedication to the gymnastics program.

Rotation 1 – Floor

• Sam Montague turned in a very proficient routine, scoring 13.300 to tie for second place.
• Kaleb Booth's routine was a crowd-pleasing set that earned execution marks worth of first place, until a neutral deduction lowered his score to 13.150.  He settled for fourth place.
• Nick Smiley and Sam Forbes, who was competing on floor for the first time in his career, were both close to the 13 point mark.  Their scores were 12.850 and 12.700, respectively.  Smiley and James Marden each earned a stick bonus.

Rotation 2 – Pommel Horse

• Colin Schwartz turned in a fluid, smooth routine and earned a career high 13.800.  He took first place over a field that included W&M's Jacopo Gliozzo, the #4-ranked horse worker in the country.
• Xan Weaver set the tone for UIC's season high team total in the leadoff spot.  He put up a season high 12.250, good for fifth place.
• James Strevey's 12.000 was also a season high, as was Eric Barnd's 11.650.  Michael Peluso matched Strevey's 12-flat.
• Not only was the team's 61.700 total a season high, it was the best pommel score for UIC since the Flames hit the same number on April 8, 2017.

Rotation 3 – Still Rings

• Weaver blew away his previous season high with a score of 12.950.  He finished fourth.
• Smiley was one spot behind Weaver with a 12.550.
• Wes Diveney tied for fifth with Smiley, scoring an identical 12.550.

Rotation 4 – Vault

• Montague set a career high with a vault worth 13.850.  He was third in the meet.
• Paul Burney had the team's next highest score, 13.600.
• Schwartz achieved a new season high and tied the best score of his career with a 13.350.
• With no margin for error in the five up/five count scoring, the Flames had deductions for falls on two vaults, which widened the gap between them and the Tribe.

Rotation 5 – Parallel Bars

• Montague had another career high, scoring 12.750 and placing second.
• Schwartz posted a 12.400, good for fifth place.
• Eric Barnd and Smiley each scored 11.900 and tied for eighth.

Rotation 6 – High Bar

• Paul Burney flew highest for the Flames again, scoring 12.300 for a third place showing.
• Sam Norwood continued his late-season surge.  He set a season high with a 12.200 and took fourth.
• Montague was right behind with a score of 11.750.

All-Around

• Montague took first place in the all-around standings.
• His score of 74.750 was a season high for any Flame.

Up Next

• Two more road meets await the Flames before the conference championships.
• The next meet will be in two weeks, on March 23 as Cal with defending national champion Oklahoma.