Stephens gets second chance at Olympics
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
March 27, 2020
Sophomore gymnast Clay Stephens has dreamed of representing his native Australia in the Olympics since he was five years old. This year, Stephens finally had a chance to fulfill that dream by qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but his hopes seemingly ended on Feb. 20 when he suffered ...
Illini road to success comes to a close
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
March 17, 2020
The Illinois men’s gymnastics team left Champaign last Wednesday for San Juan, Puerto Rico for what was supposed to be a special trip, but an otherwise routine competition. The competition never happened. It was canceled, along with every remaining competition the team had scheduled, due to the ong...
Illini to compete in Puerto Rico
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
March 12, 2020
The Illinois men’s gymnastics team usually travels to its competitions via charter bus, but on Wednesday, the team had to fly to the location of its next competition: San Juan, Puerto Rico. The team was awake at 5 a.m. on Wednesday to catch a bus to Chicago, where the Illini boarded a plane bound ...
Illinois defeats Michigan, Penn State on Senior Day
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
March 9, 2020
The No. 5-ranked Illinois men’s gymnastics team faced two tough opponents on Saturday when it hosted No. 2 Michigan and No. 8 Penn State at Huff Hall for Senior Day. Michigan and Penn State are two of the best teams in the Big Ten; Michigan entered Huff Hall undefeated, and Penn State had...
Illinois men’s gymnastics tied for sixth time in 90 years
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
March 5, 2020
Since 1930, the Illinois men’s gymnastics team has competed in over 2,100 head-to-head matchups in dual meets, tri-meets and multi-team invitationals. Of those 2,100 matchups over the last 90 years, the Illini have tied their opponent only six times. The most recent tie in Illinois’ long history...
Diab earns still rings title at Winter Cup Challenge
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
February 27, 2020
Illinois gymnasts Jordan Kovach and Alex Diab competed as individuals last weekend when they competed in the USA Gymnastics Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas. The duo experienced mixed success; Kovach was injured on Day One during his vault landing and was unable to complete the all-around event he was ...
Illinois dominates No. 3-ranked Nebraska at home
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
February 3, 2020
The Illinois men’s gymnastics team defeated the No. 3-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers at Huff Hall Saturday. Illinois won the meet 407.05-399.85, improving to 2-1 in dual meets (1-1 in conference) this season. Illinois dominated Nebraska for the first four events of the meet, accumulating a total sco...
No. 8 Illinois to host top-10 match against No. 3 Nebraska
By Bradley Zimmerman, Staff Writer
January 30, 2020
The No. 8 Illinois men’s gymnastics team will return to Huff Hall on Saturday for a top 10 match against No. 3 Nebraska. “They’re a pretty solid team. They really don’t have a weak event,” said Illinois head coach Justin Spring. “They’ve got some veterans (who) have been in their prog...
Illinois signs seven top-25 NCAA recruits
By Bradley Zimmerman, Contributing Writer
November 21, 2019
The Illinois men’s gymnastics team signed seven recruits on Nov. 13 to form its 2021 recruiting class. All seven signees rank among the top-25 NCAA men’s gymnastics 2021 recruits. Illinois landed more top-25 recruits than any other collegiate team in the nation. Penn State landed the next-highest...
Bull qualifies for 2020 Tokyo Olympics following World Championships
By JJ Kim, Assistant Sports Editor
October 10, 2019
Former Illinois gymnast Tyson Bull cemented a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with a score of 14.366 in the high bar at the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships men’s finals qualifiers, which resulted in a seventh-place finish. Only the top eight finishers in the high bar are guaranteed a spot in the 202...
Diab to represent US in Italy
By Nithin Reddy, Staff Writer
May 2, 2019
After a historic four-year career competing for the Illinois men’s gymnastics team, Alex Diab will represent the U.S. in this summer’s World University games in Naples, Italy. Diab is coming off another stellar season with the Illini, where he won his fourth straight Big Ten title on still ring...
Illini finish in NCAA top five
By Nithin Reddy, Staff Writer
April 22, 2019
The Illinois men’s gymnastics team placed fifth at the NCAA championship over the weekend. The Stanford Cardinals pulled off the big upset by defeating the four-time-champion Oklahoma Sooners by less than a point and the Illini by nearly ten points. Illinois put up a total score of just 405.358, com...
