Huskers Travel to Take on Illinois, Ohio State

The No. 7 Nebraska men's gymnastics team travels to Columbus, Ohio this weekend for a triangular meet against the no. 4 Illinois Fighting Illini and the host No.9 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Saturday's triangular between the Nebraska, Illinois and Ohio State will be shown on a tape-delayed basis on the Big Ten Network on March 19 at 1 p.m. CST.

The Huskers are coming off their second highest team score of the year in a home loss to No. 2 Stanford (359.000 - 347.600) Last Saturday at the Devaney Center.

Despite the loss, Coach Chmelka was still pleased with how the team recovered from the teams previous loss at No.10 Iowa.

"Overall, I'm happy with our performance as a team," he said. "We didn't do well at Iowa, especially on pommel horse, but we rebounded and looked a lot better."

Sophomore Andreas Hofer and freshman Wyatt Aycock are once again expected to compete in the all-around for the Huskers on Saturday. Both are coming off their best all-around performances of the year with Hofer earing an 86.90 and Aycock with a career high 83.70.

Last weekend, at least one Husker had a career high on every event. Freshman Andrew House and junior David Jacobs both scored career highs on two of their three events, house had bests on floor (14.00) and vault (15.60), while Jacobs on parallel bars (13.95) and high bar (14.85). Junior Michael Killeen also had a career high on pommel horse (12.55). Freshman Eric Schryver tallied two career highs of his own last Saturday on rings (13.50) and high bar (14.60).

Schryver is still in the top five nationally on pommel horse rankings, he currently sits 5th, averaging a 15.133. This week marks the fourth consecutive week that Schryver has been ranked in the top five on pommel horse. Hofer, coming off his best all-around performance of the year, continues to move up the all-around ranking, he currently is ranked ninth with a 85.850.

Scouting No. 4 Illinois
This is the second and final meeting this season between Illinois and Nebraska. The two teams met earlier this season at Minnesota where the Illini topped the Huskers 351.500-333.100.

Illinois is led by 2010 U.S. Senior National Team member and seven time All-American Paul Ruggeri, who is ranked in the top 20 in five of the seven events, including being the top ranked gymnast on high bar with a 15.850 average. On the floor exercise Ruggeri ranks fifth (15.333), while he is sixth in all-around (86.017) and 14th on parallel bars (15.900).

Other top gymnasts for the Illini are senior Daniel Ribeiro, who is currently the top ranked gymnast on pommel horse, and Anthony Sacramento, who leads UI in rings with a seventh place ranking (15.283)

As a team, the Fighting Illini rank in the top 10 on all six events. Illinois ranks third on floor (59.900), third on pommel horse (58.367), sixth on rings (58.267), sixth on vault (63.033), fourth on parallel bars (58.233) and fourth on high bar (58.300).

Scouting No. 9 Ohio State
This is the first and only regular season meeting between the Huskers and the Buckeyes.

Ohio state is led by senior still rings specialist and 2010 national champion Brandon Wynn. He is currently the top ranked gymnast on rings, averaging a 15.867. Freshman Jeff Treleaven ranks in the top 20 on two events. He is ranked 13th on floor (14.900) and ninth on vault (15.967).

As a team the Buckeyes rank in the top 10 on five of six events. They rank sixth on floor (58.417), seventh on pommel horse (57.100), seventh on rings (57.950), 10th on vault (62.200) and 10th on parallel bars (56.633).