University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Take Third at Windy City Invite
1/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The University of Minnesota men’s gymnastics team opened its 2009 season with a third-place finish Saturday at the Windy City Invitational, hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago. The Gophers put together a score of 341.400, finishing behind Michigan (346.100) and Illinois (342.250). Minnesota’s total was better than those of Ohio State (337.650), Illinois-Chicago (327.700) and Iowa (325.900).
"It's been a lot of years since we made it to the awards stand as a team at the Windy City," Minnesota head coach Mike Burns said. "This is a big hurdle for this program to jump over and I'm excited for these guys."
Junior Aaron Fortunato (Bedford, Ohio) turned in the one of the Gophers’ top performances in the season opener, winning the parallel bars with a score of 14.900. Fortunato also took a fourth-place finish on the high bar with a 14.150.
Meanwhile, freshman DJ Repp (Albuquerque, N.M.) was the top all-around performer for Minnesota. Repp finished sixth in the all-around with a tally of 80.350.
"We had some great 'first-time performances' tonight as we got to see our new freshman class in action alongside some Gophers who saw action for the first time tonight in the Maroon and Gold," said Burns. "Ali Aleiou made a grand entrance today with a 6th place finish on high bar with a score of 14.05 and an 8th place finish on vault with a score of 15.15. It was great to see Ali take such good advantage of this opportunity to get out there and contribute to the team's success," said Burns.
Other first-time competitors for the Gophers included a pair of sophomores in Travis Heaver and Michael Paulus who posted scores of 13.5 on still rings and 13.85 on parallel bars, respectively.
"Both Travis and Michael stepped up today and delivered some great performances for the team," said Burns. "It's great to see these guys out there making an impact on this team."
Freshmen DJ Repp, Russell Dabritz and Ross Cameratta all made their Gopher debuts with solid performances all the way around.
"Our freshman class really stepped up and showed their abilities tonight," said Burns. "These guys opened up some eyes tonight."
Dabritz finished with the team's highest score on the still rings with a 14.45.
Minnesota’s strongest event in the competition was the vault. The Gophers compiled a total of 60.500 in the event, led by junior Adam Reichow (Eden Prairie, Minn.) with a score of 15.500. Reichow’s tally was good enough for third in the competition. Reichow also tallied Minnesota’s top score in the floor exercise with a 14.900.
The Gophers are back in action again next Saturday in their home opener. Minnesota will host Calgary, Arizona State and Washington in a 7 p.m. meet at the Sports Pavilion.
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Players Mentioned
