University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Illinois
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Maroon & Gold Come Up Just Short Against Illinois
3/22/2021 7:59:00 PM | Men's Gymnastics
The Minnesota men's gymnastics team fell short of the University of Illinois in the team's regular season finale on Monday, losing by a score of 393.800-392.800.
Notable
With sophomore Crew Bold's 13.400 performance on high bar, the Gophers captured their fifth high bar event title of the season. This marked the second time of the season that Bold has won the high bar title.
Quotable
"Great battle right to the very end," head coach Mike Burns said. "It looks like Illinois was just one point better than us on the scoresheet, and that was just a little bit of a tough pill to swallow. We dug ourselves into a hole early on, and I was really proud of how the guys just kept fighting throughout the last four events and pulled it back from a pretty big deficit. The final tribute after the meet was tear jerking and pretty hard to sit through without getting too emotional. I was glad I had a chance to address everybody in the building and it was just a good way to end it."
All-Around
A pair of Gophers competed for the all-around title for the first time this season, with Mike Moran finishing in second place with a score of 78.650, just 0.350 away from the all-around title. Sophomore Crew Bold also competed for the all-around for the first time this season, finishing in third with a new career high score of 77.700.
Floor Exercise
Minnesota came up just short on reaching the event podium with Mike Moran (13.900), Garrett Kasiski (13.850), and Colton Dee (13.800) finishing in fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively. Big scores by Illinois saw the Gophers fall to the Fighting Illini in the team event title race.
ILL: 68.400, UMN: 66.500
Pommel Horse
The Gophers saw a rough team outing on pommel horse, with only two gymnasts scoring higher than a 12.000 in the event. Freshman Noah Duran tied his personal best score of 13.600 to finish second in the event, while senior Henry Meeker logged a 12.150, finishing in sixth.
ILL: 62.200, UMN: 58.400
Still Rings
The Maroon & Gold saw their first team event win on still rings thanks to a pair of career highs by Henry Meeker (13.550) and Mike Moran (13.500). Colton Dee led the way for the Gophers with a score of 13.600 to finish in third for the event title.
UMN: 66.300, ILL: 65.950
Vault
On vault, Ben Eyles and Garrett Kasiski saw themselves on the podium following each gymnast earning a season high score in the event, with Eyles putting up a 14.650 while Kasiski scored a 14.400. Despite this, the Gophers weren't able to gain ground on Illinois as the team fell just short of the Fighting Illini's marks.
ILL: 70.450, UMN: 70.200
Parallel Bars
Minnesota saw their first individual event title on parallel bars with Crew Bold capturing the title with his score of 13.750. Fellow sophomore Victor Perez sealed up second place for the Maroon & Gold as well with a career high score of 13.650 to help push the Gophers past Illinois in the event and close the team score gap.
UMN: 66.400, ILL: 64.700
High Bar
To close out the competition, Crew Bold was able to capture his second event title of the day with a 13.400 score on high. The Gophers then locked up the remainder of the podium as Victor Perez (13.300) and Donte McKinney (13.150) led the charge for the Maroon & Gold. Despite this effort, Minnesota fell just a point short of completing the comeback against Illinois.
UMN: 65.000, ILL: 62.100
The Road Ahead
The Gophers will now have a weekend off before they travel to Lincoln, Neb. for their first taste of postseason competition at the Big Ten Championships on Apr. 3. Then after another week off, the Maroon & Gold will cap off their 2021 campaign by returning to Maturi Pavilion to host the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Apr. 16-17.