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No. 12 Men's Gymnastics Falls At No. 2 Ohio State
Jan. 24, 2005
Columbus, Ohio- A few feet of snow wasn't the only thing that the UIC men's gymnastics team had to battle through. Injuries to 2004 All-American Neil Faustino (back) and Tim Morrison (wrist) left the Flames even more decimated by injury than before, leaving a tough but shorthanded UIC squad prone to the second-ranked team in the country as the Ohio State Buckeyes won a 223.875-198.250 decision late Saturday. Junior Eric Novick gave the Flames a big highlight with an all-around win over the , scoring a 52.050 in his first meet of the year. Novick has now won the last two all-around competitions he has taken part in, dating back to last year's ECAC Championship meet. Nick Stavros chipped in with a fourth-place rings performance of 9.250. The Flames received some nice performances from many of their first-time performers. Redshirt freshman Joe Blum was solid on vault (8.4) and high bar (8.4), while fellow redshirt freshman Brad Trompeter stepped up in a few events, highlighted by a nice 8.95 vault. Steve Garner, Doug Pearson and Brad Burbrink were also among the UIC gymnasts to pick up some of the slack to alleviate the injury bug that has hit the Flames. "Many [of the first-time performers] did what seasoned veterans do,' said UIC head coach "CJ" Johnson. Johnson knows that with the heart and guts his team showed in the face of adversity against a very good Ohio State team, the Flames will be even tougher once they get to 100% strength.
"We're still at the point right now where the team is not down in the dumps," said Johnson, knowing that while the scores aren't up to par to last year's pace, there is a lot of season left for his 2005 team to get healed and ready for a run in the ECAC. UIC returns home this Saturday to host Minnesota at the UIC Physical Education Building at 7 p.m. Ohio State 223.875, UIC 198.250 TEAM SCORES Team FX PH SR VT PB HB OSU 36.150 37.400 38.475 36.950 36.500 38.400 UIC 32.300 31.200 35.950 36.050 33.250 29.500 |
