STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Paul Ruggeri won the all-around, parallel bars and high bar to lead top-ranked Illinois past No. 5 Penn State in men's gymnastics Saturday.

The Illini's 354.600-345.950 victory represented a season-high point total.

Former Illini shortstop Toby Gardenhire has received an invitation to spring training by the Minnesota Twins as a non-roster player. Gardenhire, the son of Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, played his senior season at the UI in 2005 after transferring from Southwest Missouri State.

CHAMPAIGN – The pressure was on for Sarah Schmidt on Sunday. Heading into the final floor routine, the Illini senior needed to score better than 9.825 to give Illinois a victory against Michigan State.

"Sarah knew she needed a pretty good score, and she came through an impressive performance," Illini coach Bob Starkell said after Schmidt posted a 9.925 to give Illinois the inaugural Victory Plank trophy with a 195.600-195.500 win. "She didn't crunch the numbers to know how good of a score she needed, but she knew she could do it, and this was a great showing from her."

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Illinois senior Angela Bizzarri tied a 22-year-old school record while winning the mile run Saturday at the Tyson Invitational women's indoor track and field meet.

Former Illini loses in first round of SAP Open

CHAMPAIGN – Illinois and Wisconsin split the 10 wrestling matches Sunday, but the 21st-ranked Illini got one more bonus point than the 13th-ranked Badgers to pull off a 19-18 upset at Huff Hall.

"We wrestled hard, did some good things and made some adjustments from Friday night (a 27-13 loss to No. 5 Minnesota)," coach Jim Heffernan said. "We needed bonus points at a few weights and it was important to get off to a good start, and we did both of those things."

CHAMPAIGN – No. 5 Minnesota got off to a fast start, winning the first five matches en route to a 27-13 wrestling win against No. 21 Illinois on Friday at Huff Hall.

No. 2 John Dergo (184 pounds) won his match by major decision and No. 14 Patrick Bond (197) beat 10th-ranked Sonny Yohn. They were the only two Illini to win matches. John Deneen (125) picked up a win by forfeit.

MINNEAPOLIS – Benched for much of Thursday's loss to Michigan, seniors Jenna Smith and Lacey Simpson rebounded Sunday at Minnesota.

Smith had 18 points and 14 rebounds, and Simpson added 15 points and eight assists – not to mention stellar defense against Gophers leading scorer Kiara Buford – as the Illini used a 17-0 spurt to start the second half to pull away for a 61-48 victory against the Gophers.