Feb. 16, 2002

Results

Gainesville, Fla. - The University of Illinois at Chicago women's gymnastics team knew it was in for a battle Friday night, traveling to the tumbling version of the "Swamp" and facing off against three of the top 19 teams in the nation at the SunTrust Mardi Gras Madness hosted by the University of Florida.

When the dust finally settled, the Flames had put together their second consecutive score above the 194 mark, and completed their third solid competition in six days, but it wasn't enough, as the host Gators won the event with a score of 196.900 in front of 2, 473 fans at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

No. 14 Florida was followed by No. 7 Stanford (195.700), No. 19 Penn State (195.375) and the 42nd ranked Flames (194.175).

"The kids did a great job down here," said co-head coach Peter Jansson. "We are really starting to make a move, and I am very proud of the kids because this was a tough week for us and they competed very well."

The Flames did compete well enough to record a pair of team records.

On vault, UIC ran off six near-perfect routines-all above 9.675-to finish with a team-score of 49.050, good for a new team record, which was just set on Tuesday at Illinois State (48.800).

Also making her way into the record books was Amy August, who tallied a 9.900 on vault, equaling the school record set by former UIC standout Gabriella Brunn three times in her brilliant career between 1998-2000.

August's effort on vault was good for a fourth-place finish on the event, while Atlin Mitchell had the highest Flames finish, garnering third-place on floor with her second consecutive meet of scoring a 9.875.

"We are starting to come together and we are on the right track," said Jansson. "We need to make some moves and we'll be on our way."

The Flames now have a week off before traveling to Michigan State to take part in the Country Market Spartan Invitational next Saturday. Competition begins at 6:00 PM in East Lansing, Michigan.