Chris Lung, a freshman on the men?s gymnastics team, had big shoes to fill when he came to Champaign this fall. Lung, the 2005 Junior Olympic National pommel horse champion, was looked at to replace graduating senior and 2005 co-Big Ten pommel horse winner, Ben Newman. But after a second-place finish in the event at Big Tens two weekends ago, he has made a significant impact to one of the team?s weakest events.

Q: After your finish at Big Tens, how do you think everyone is going to respond when you go to the National Championships?

A: I think it really put my name out there. Most people, because I?m a freshman, probably wouldn?t know me, so I think it just put my name out there so people can recognize me.

Q: What are the team?s chances of winning a team National title?

A: I think we have a real good chance. I think we have the best chance out there, we have the two best scorers out there and we haven?t put up a full lineup yet. This will be the first time, (at the) NCAAs, we?ll be going full throttle, and we?ll be ready when everyone gets healthy.

Q: What areas of gymnastics have you grown the most in since you started here at Illinois this year?

A: College is so much different than high school, so it really helped me learn how to compete, because you compete every week. It?s really helped me be more confident and just do the routines I know how to do.

Q: How is the way you practiced in high school different from the way you go about it now?

A: It?s a little different because you compete every week, so you don?t have a whole month to train for that one meet. You have to train and then compete and train and compete. It?s just a different training process.

Q: When you came to Illinois did you think you could make as big of an impact on the team as you have thus far?

A: I hoped I could. At first when I came here, I knew we had an amazing team, so I knew it would be hard to make an impact, but everyday I just tried to work as hard as I could to keep up sets and routines.

Q: Being from the east coast, what is one of the things you really enjoy about Champaign?

A: What I know is most different from Massachusetts is that everyone?s more friendly. People are more talkative, more friendly. It?s just a different environment. Instead of a big city, it?s a small town, a small college town; I like it.

Q: What is the greatest thing about Illinois? historic gymnastics tradition?

A: What I love about this gymnastics tradition, is that there?s so much passion. There?s a lot of fans and they?re energetic and loud. Other colleges, you go around, and their fans aren?t into it; there?s not many of them. I just love the team, in general. Over the years, I?ve just heard that this team has been one unit.

Q: Do you have any superstitions that you have to do before meets?

A: Before every meet I watch the movie ?Rocky? or I usually listen to the ?Rocky? soundtrack. It just motivates me, gets me mentally prepared and in the game.

Q: What?s a recent movie you saw that you liked?

A: I did watch ?Rocky IV? before Big Tens. I watched that with (sophomores) Ross (Bradley) and Jon (Drollinger). Something that we watched on the bus was ?Saw 2,? that was a good movie.

Q: What?s the worst thing about living in the dorms?

A: The dorm food starts getting boring. It would probably be nice to have your own, separate room just to have a little more privacy. Other than that, I don?t really complain, I don?t spend too much time in the dorms.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to?

A: I listen to everything. I listen to Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, rap, hip hop, anything really.