University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Windy City Invitational
Minnesota Takes Fourth at Windy City Invitational
1/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
Jan. 14, 2012
The Gophers placed fourth out of six teams at the Windy City Invitational. They finished with a total score of 338.1, only 0.6 behind the third place team.
Ohio State took home first place with a score of 344.5. Illinois finished second, followed by Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois-Chicago, and Iowa.
"The fourth place finish was disappointing for this group," head coach Mike Burns said. "We came in expecting to be in the top two. I thought we looked like one of the best teams out there, but we gave away too many points."
The Gophers battled between second and third place throughout the majority of the meet, but small mistakes ending up costing the team.
"We showed up confident and hit some great routines today," captain Ross Cameratta said. "We made too many little mistakes though, so there's still a lot of room for improvement."
Minnesota opened the meet on the still rings. Russell Dabritz posted the team's highest score with a 14.5.
The Gophers scored the highest on the floor exercise with a 58.1. They were led by Kyle Banks who earned a score of 15.0 and finished the event in seventh.
Ross Cameratta and Russell Dabritz were solid on the parallel bars. They both scored 14.4 on the event and finished in a four-way tie for fifth place.
Junior Josh Wokurka finished on top for the Gophers on the high bar and in sixth place overall. Senior Adam LaFleur led the team on vault with a 14.3.
The team finished strong on the pommel horse. Freshman Ellis Mannon won the event with a 14.8. John Scallon finished in fifth.
"We didn't make the statement we came in to make," Burns said. "You have to seize the opportunity when you have it, and we didn't do that. We're going to have to buckle down this next week in practice to make sure we don't make the same mistakes we made tonight."
The Gophers take on UIC at home next Saturday.
Players Mentioned
