University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers to Open Season at Windy City Invite
1/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
| Windy City Invitational | |||||||||||
| Date | Saturday, Jan. 17, 2014 | ||||||||||
| Location | UIC Pavilion , Chicago | ||||||||||
| Time | 7:30 p.m. CT | ||||||||||
| Coverage | Live stats link to follow | ||||||||||
Jan. 14, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 7 University of Minnesota men's gymnastics team will travel to Chicago for the Windy City Invitational, marking their official start to the regular season this Saturday. The meet, hosted by the University of Illinois-Chicago at the UIC Pavilion, begins at 7:30 p.m. CT.
About the Windy City Invitational
The Windy City Invitational has been the season kick off event for 45 years, which qualifies it as the nation's oldest and largest regular season gymnastics meet. The Gophers will face almost all of the Big Ten Conference teams and the event serves as an early test to determine where the Maroon and Gold stand among its conference competition. After hosting their annual Alumni Meet, which serves as a dress rehearsal for the team, the Gophers are ready for regular season to kick off where the scores count.
Alumni Meet Recap
The Gophers fell to the program's alumni squad this past weekend, 428.10 to 428.00, marking the 48th year in a row that the alumni have defeated the varsity team.
Seniors Jack Metcalf and Steve Jaciuk claimed the top scores in four of the six events. Metcalf claimed the vault with a score of 15.00. Jaciuk took home the top score on both the high bar and parallel bars with a 15.20 and a 14.80 on still rings. Paul Montague Jr. took the top score on the pommel horse after tallying a 14.30. One of the highlights and surprises from the night was with the high score of 15.00 on the floor exercise claimed by freshman Alex Wittenberg.
Previously in Chicago...
The Gophers finished fourth at the 2014 Windy City Invitational with a score of 424.800. Winning the meet was Michigan, followed by Ohio State and Illinois rounding out the top three. Iowa and host UIC finished behind the Gophers.
Then juniors, Sean Bauer and Steve Jaciuck added to the strong performances for the Gophers. Ellis Mannon won the all-around title with a score of 87.05 and never scored below a 14.00 on any of the events; he impressed on the pommel horse tallying 15.95.
Opponent's Results
Only two of the Gophers' opponents this weekend have already begun competition, as Illinois and UIC opened up their seasons in Chicago last weekend.
UIC ended the competition with an overall score of 390.150 and were defeated by Illinois with a total score of 429.100. Senior Brett Valin tied for first on vault with a score of 15.000 and claimed a new program record.
Two injuries plague Illinois, as they lose sophomore Chandler Eggleston, who will redshirt the 2015 season after having surgery on a ruptured patella tendon, and junior Fred Hartville, who will miss a few weeks due to repairing a hyper-extended knee.
Top all-around titles were awarded to three Illinois gymnasts and one from UIC. Illinois junior Joey Peters, bested his previous career-high score of 85.850 with a a 86.550. Following Peters was CJ Maestas with a score of 86.350. Freshman Bobby Baker rounded out the top Illinois scores with a 84.550 while UIC senior Jason Gaides, finished with a 80.400.
Gophers in the National Rankings
In the preseason 2015 College Gymnastics Association's (CGA) Coach's poll, Minnesota landed the seventh spot on the list. As one of the seven Big Ten Conference schools to make the list, this was the highest preseason ranking the Gophers has earned in 17 years. Claiming the top spot was Oklahoma and Michigan and Ohio State followed to round out the top three. Also earning spots within the Big Ten was Illinois (No.5), Penn State (No.6), Iowa (No.9), and Nebraska (No.10).
In the 2015 Big Ten Preseason Coaches' Poll, Ohio State was ranked first, followed by Michigan and Illinois. In fourth through seventh place, respectfully, are Penn State, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska.
Of Gophers ranked in the 2015 Big Ten Gymnasts to Watch, among them is Mannon and Jaciuk.
Looking Ahead
After the Gophers compete in the Windy City Invitational, they will return home to the Sports Pavilion to host Air Force. The Falcons are currently ranked No.11 in the CGA Preseason Poll, the highest in program history. Air Force will host the Rocky Mountain open this weekend, prior to heading to Minnesota to take on the Gophers.
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Players Mentioned
