CHAMPAIGN, IL -- No. 3-ranked Illinois captured all six team events en route to a 209.650-191.150 victory over No. 15 Temple Saturday evening at Huff Hall. Sophomore Luke Vexler was the Owls' lone individual champion, winning the floor exercise with a 9.000 score.
Vexler, the nation's seventh-ranked collegiate all-arounder, was also the team's top competitor on pommel horse (6th, 7.950) and horizontal bar (5th, 8.150). He tied for fourth place with teammate Alex Gorski on vault, as the two posted 8.800 scores on the apparatus to lead the Owls. Vexler was one of two Cherry & White performers to compete all-around and finished second overall with a 49.150 total, just behind Illinois' Wes Haagensen (50.400). Fellow TU sophomore Sterling Kramer placed third with a 45.600 tally.
Senior co-captain Brian Forquer paced Temple on rings, earning a tie for fourth with an 8.000 score. Kramer was the team's top finisher on parallel bars, capturing fifth with an 8.300 showing.
Temple's highest event score came on the vault, where the Owls accumulated a 35.000 total, less than a point behind the Fighting Illini (35.900). The team's lowest score of the night was on the horizontal bar with a 29.500, well behind the hosts' 35.300. Illinois, which had five different student-athletes win individual events, also had a score above 35 points on parallel bars (35.800).
Temple, under the direction of 30th-year head coach Fred Turoff, returns to the friendly confines of McGonigle Hall next weekend for its 2006 home opener. The Owls host Stanford, M.I.T. and Springfield in a quad meet scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening (Feb. 18).
