Sam Montague and Kaleb Booth represented UIC at the NCAA national meet in a qualifying session Friday night.  With just three spots available in each event for individuals to advance to Saturday's finals, neither Flame scored high enough to make it through.

Montague totaled 71.898 in the all-around.  Booth scored 13.400 on his floor exercise.

"Both Sam and Kaleb held their own with the big boys," head coach Charley Nelson said.  "Sam rotated with Oklahoma, who has won the last four national championships.  He has had better meets, but he hung in there.  Kaleb was as good as he's been all season.  Not bad for his first go-around.  All in all, it was a great way to finish it out."

Montague was the first gymnast of the entire meet to compete on floor.  He stuck his first tumbling pass but showed some nerves on his second, finishing with a 12.533.  After scoring 11.266 on pommel horse, he posted a 12.533 on rings, which was right in line with his scores in the regular season's final two meets.

His vault was scored 12.833.  A step on his parallel bars dismount rendered his final score 12.400.  His evening came to an unfortunate end when he fell on one of his high bar releases.  He did get back on the bar, nailed his next release, and finished strong for a score of 10.333.
 
Booth showed a confidence that belied his freshman standing.  He executed his tumbling passes surely and earned a score that well surpassed his season average.
 
The top score on floor was 14.600 by Ohio State's Jesse Tyndall.  Bennet Huang of Iowa had the best all-around mark, 80.365.  Montague was eligible to qualify for finals in all of the six events in addition to the all-around, but the field of gymnasts from non-qualifying teams Iowa, Ohio State, and Army was too deep for him to crack the top three in any event.

The Flames' season comes to an end after two team members competed at NCAAs for the first time since 2016.