Illini place second in Big Ten men's gymnastics championships
Apr. 6—CHAMPAIGN — Illinois' men's gymnastics team entered the Big Ten Championships with a chance to do something it hadn't done since 2018.
Win a Big Ten title.
The Illini — hosting the conference's four other men's gymnastics members in Michigan, Nebraska, Penn State and Ohio State at State Farm Center — came close to meeting that goal on Friday en route to a second-place finish.
"I almost got emotional there at the end," Illinois coach Daniel Ribeiro said. "They fought so hard, you could just feel it with your team. Five events were incredible, we had a couple of little mistakes on high bar ... to finish in second and put that much pressure on Michigan, that's all I could ask for."
Michigan topped the field in the all-around team component of the conference meet with a score of 418.100. Illinois placed second with a score of 413.750, followed by Nebraska (407.350), Ohio State (406.550) and Penn State (404.050).
Momentum is on Illinois' side, however, ahead of Saturday's individual portion of the Big Ten Championships. Will Hauke and Ashton Anaya posted the best scores in the pommel horse and high rings, respectively at 14.200 and 15.050.
"Our back-end guys were incredible," Ribeiro said. "The pommel horse team was just incredible under so much pressure in the last event, for being so exhausted, to do that well just showed how badly they wanted it."
Friday's meet began with Illinois on the still rings, where two-time conference champion Ashton Anaya paced the Illini with a mark of 15.050.
Logan Myers was second among Illinois' rotation with a score of 14.150 as the Illini entered the second rotation in third place at 68.450. Nebraska's score of 70.550 on the vault had given the Cornhuskers the early lead.
Illinois' fortunes changed during the second rotation when Preston Ngai and Amari Sewell carded vault scores of 14.900 and 14.800, respectively, to lift the Illini into first place.
Illinois surrendered the lead when a strong performance on the vault placed Michigan into the lead with two rotations to go. The Illini couldn't jump back into the top spot despite a solid finish from their pommel horse competitors, who topped the sixth rotation with a score of 69.900.
Michigan's Fred Richard won the all-around individual title with a cumulative score of 83.900.
"We're not done yet," Ribeiro said. "We've got (Saturday night), we have a lot of guys in the finals because of how well they did, so we'll have a great opportunity to earn some individual Big Ten titles. And then we've got NCAA championships coming up in two weeks, and that's anybody's game."
