After the first three rotations in Saturday’s meet at Ohio State, the No. 3 Illinois men’s gymnastics team had a slim lead against the No.1-ranked Buckeyes.

But during the Illini’s fourth rotation, the vault, senior Justin Spring landed short on his normal two and a half twisting vault and immediately rolled over onto his back.

Head coach Yoshi Hayasaki made the decision to take Spring out of the competition, but the Illini, mentally affected by the injury, never could bounce back.

“It went downhill from there,” Hayasaki said about the team’s performance after Spring left the lineup. “We had an OK performace on parallel bars and a not so good performance on high bar.”

Spring, who dislocated the patella in his left knee, is expected to be out of Illinois’ already depleted lineup for two to three weeks, Hayasaki said.

Although Spring said that his knee is weak, he is highly doubtful that he will be out of competition for that period of time.

The Illini fell to the Buckeyes by a score of 213.250 to 206.900, Illinois’ lowest team score on the season.

Sophomore Wes Haagensen tied his career-high on floor exericise with a third-place finish and score of 9.300, while sophomore Tyler Yamauchi finished in second place on the rings with a 9.100.

Tallying season-highs on floor exercise with a 9.350 and vault with a 9.250 and winning two event titles was senior Adam Pummer. In addition to his titles, Pummer recorded four top-three finishes (Floor, Vault, Parallel Bars, High Bar) for the Illini.

“Once again, Adam came through with a great performance,” Hayasaki said. “He’s been the one pulling this team right now, doing the job for the team. He’s certainly showing that leadership at this point.”

After three meets, Pummer has already recorded five event titles.

It is Pummer’s goal, he said, that if the rest of the team can see him leading by example that they will be able to increase hit percentages and stick routines.

“People aren’t confident,” Pummer said of the Illini’s low team scores of late. “There’s a big lack of confidence and competitiors on our team, which is what we’re trying to work on.

“It’s all lack of confidence when you’re competing in front of people, which is hard to teach somebody to do. Right now, we just need to work on more numbers, just sticking with it.”

After missing five of six routines on pommel horse, Hayasaki said that with the injuries the Illini have suffered, more individuals will need to step up.

“They are training well in the gym, but they are competing in a way at times that makes them non-aggressive and conservative in their approach to competition,” Hayasaki said. “In the last half of this competition, we kind of let down psychologically.”