University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head to UIC
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
The University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team is back in action on Sunday as it heads to the University of Illinois-Chicago at 1 p.m.
The No. 8 Gophers will be looking to continue to roll, having won their last two meets, against a No. 13 Flames team that they have had a lot of success against in recent seasons.
"UIC is a strong team," Minnesota head coach Mike Burns said. "They're ranked below us right now and I feel confident that we'll be able to beat them. Our goal this week is to get a better score on the road. In the last two road contests we've had, we've been a little rough with our hit percentage and our scores, and I hope we can improve upon that this weekend."
The Gophers have several reasons to feel confident heading into the match-up against UIC, but none more so than a history of success.
UIC was one of five teams the Gophers faced in the Windy City Invitational in January. Minnesota outscored UIC by more than 13 points as it finished third in the competition while the Flames finished sixth.
The win in January made it 12-consecutives times, dating back to the 2005 season, that the Gophers have either directly beaten or finished ahead of UIC in a meet.
However, the Gophers are still staying focused on the task ahead of them to continually work to improve their performances while also looking to move up in the rankings to get in position to make the NCAA Championship.
"Every week we're still trying to improve on what we did the previous week," Burns said. "Regardless of who the competition is, the key is not so much how do we get the guys up for the opposing team, it's how do we get the guys to get up to improve on their previous performance."
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