Chambana Sun

The No. 3 ranked Fighting Illini men's gymnastics team secured a decisive victory over William & Mary and Simpson at Huff Hall, Champaign, Illinois. The Illini scored 410.500 points on Friday night, while William & Mary and Simpson scored 374.950 and 363.050 respectively.

Head coach Daniel Ribeiro expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance: "I am very proud of the guys tonight," he said. "We are in a very good spot heading into our last few meets." He praised the freshmen for their contributions, highlighting Preston Ngai's performance across three events, Vahe Petrosyan's first career title on parallel bars, and Garrett Schooley's first all-around title.

Ribeiro also commended Brandon Dang for earning his fifth pommel horse title and achieving the highest overall score in the meet. "This is the hardest working team we have ever had," Ribeiro stated. "It's great to see the success of their hard work pay off."

For the third time this year, an Illini gymnast took first place in each event: Connor McCool on floor (14.700), Brandon Dang on pommel horse (14.950), Ashton Anaya on still rings (14.400), Amari Sewell on vault with a career-high (14.900), Vahe Petrosyan on parallel bars (14.150), Ryan Vanichtheeranont on high bar (14.000), and Garrett Schooley in all-around (79.400).

In individual performances, Tate Costa achieved a notable floor score of 14.150 with Michael Fletcher following closely at 13.800; Will Hauke earned a solid 14.000 on pommel horse; Logan Myers scored 13.650 on still rings; Garrett Schooley recorded a vault score of 14.700; Fletcher scored 14.050 just behind Petrosyan’s parallel bars result; Myers finished with a high bar score of 13.800.

The Illini will return to conference competition against No. 5 Nebraska at the Devaney Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, scheduled for March 10 at 1 p.m.