COLUMBUS, Ohio – No. 4 Illinois men's gymnastics will continue its Big Ten competition with a meet against No. 7 Ohio State on Feb. 11 at 11 a.m. in Columbus, Ohio.
ABOUT THE MEET
The Orange and Blue are coming off a big win against Penn State that opened conference competition.
Illinois has the upper hand against the Buckeyes, with a 113-82-2 overall record.
LAST TIME OUT
The Illini are coming off another season-high team score of 408.800 against Penn State and helped the Orange and Blue to their No. 4 rank.
The Illinois men's gymnastics team secured a win in its Big Ten opener against Penn State with a 408.800-401.750 victory, the highest team score this season.
Illinois is now 8-1 on the year and 1-0 in Big Ten competition.
The Illini started off on floor, with Connor McCool nearly breaking his career-high and winning the title with a 14.400 performance. Josh Cook followed behind him, securing a 13.900 on the night.
Ian Skirkey, once again, won the pommel horse title and set a new season-high with a 14.900 performance. Connor Micklos also broke his career-high with a 14.000 with his routine.
Cook earned his first still rings title and broke his career-high with a solid 14.000. Ashton Anaya was .10 behind him, scoring a 13.900.
Amari Sewell continued his success on vault, tying his career-high on the apparatus with a 14.750 with McCool right behind him, scoring a 14.550. Cook continued his career-night on vault, scoring a 14.400.
As a team on vault, the Illini set the second-best score in program history with a 72.500, .05 away from the highest score.
Will Hauke had the highest score for the Orange and Blue on parallel bars, securing a 13.750. Yan Inhaber-Courchesne was right behind him with a 13.350.
Moving onto high bar, Cook went onto tie his career-high with a 13.800 and was .10 away from the title. Evan Manivong was behind Cook, securing a 13.450.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Amari Sewell, newly transferred from Iowa, has had four standout performances this season.
At Windy City, Sewell broke his vault career-high with a 14.700 and won the vault title, against Greenville, the Bowie, M.D. native broke his floor career-high in a landslide, scoring a 13.600 and won the vault title for the second week in a row, in the Oklahoma tri meet, he broke his vault career-high again with a 14.750 on vault and this past weekend, Sewell tied his career-high and is ranked No. 1 in the country on vault.
RANKED ILLINI
Illinois has five athletes ranked in the top five in their respective events this week: Connor McCool is No. 2 on floor, Ian Skirkey is No. 1 on pommel horse, Ashton Anaya is No. 2 on still rings, Amari Sewell is No. 1 on vault and David Pochinka is No. 5 on high bar.
