March 4, 2001

Chicago, Ill. - There was no shortage of excitement during Sunday's ECAC men's gymnastics conference meet between Temple University and host UIC.

Temple, after all, held a 172.5-172.45 lead heading into the final event. The Owls sustained the lead and held on for the 206.95-205.4 victory at the Physical Education Building.

"Doing what were doing right now - changing routines and getting bodies back," Johnson said. "We're the walking wounded. We hung in there really well until the end."

Sunday also marked senior day for the Flames as they celebrated the careers of Anthony Cirullo (Glenwood, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor), Dave Johnson (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) and Frankie Pretzel (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way.).

Cirullo and Johnson proved to be the catalyst to the Flames' season-best team score of the season. Cirullo was UIC's top performer on the floor exercise (8.95). He also captured the vault event with a 9.300 followed by Johnson's 9.150.

Johnson also scored a season-best, first-place performance of 9.500 on the still rings. He was also tops for the Flames on the parallel bars with a team-best mark of 8.500.

Junior Chris Coorlim (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) captured a first-place finish on the pommel horse with a score of 8.75 while freshman Ambrose Jackson (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) was the Flames' top score on the high bar with a second-place mark of 8.500.

"We gave people a good match," Johnson said. "If you like gymnastics, this was a good match to watch."

UIC will host the University of Minnesota on Friday, March 9th at 7 PM in the Physical Education Building.