When the Illinois men’s gymnastics team won its last national championship in 1989 in Lincoln, Neb., two potential threats could have stood in the path to the school’s first team title in 31 years: the overwhelming home-crowd advantage and the pommel horse, the team’s Achilles’ heel the entire season. In the next two days as Illinois looks to hang another banner in the rafters of Kenney Gym, head coach Yoshi Hayasaki’s No. 4 Illini may have the same obstacles to overcome.

Illinois, 17 years removed from its last NCAA title, will take on No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 5 California, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Nebraska and No. 12 Temple tonight at 7 in the second of two qualifying sessions at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. The top three teams from each qualifying session will advance to Saturday’s team finals.

Although Illinois (15-3, 11-3 Big Ten) trails host Oklahoma in the rankings, Hayasaki has told his team that its nation-high score of 220.000 points has yet to be outdone. Illinois posted the score against Army on March 11, just one week after they achieved its season-best of 217. 600. Hayasaki, though, said that the Illini’s biggest competition will come from within, and not from the Sooners.

“Our challenge should be competing against ourselves, and doing what we’re capable of doing,” he said. “And (the rest) will take care of itself.”

Returning to the Illinois lineup will be six-time All-American senior Adam Pummer and sophomore Tyler Yamauchi, who has 19 top-three finishes this season. Pummer sat out of the Big Ten Championships two weekends ago in Iowa City, Iowa, in which Illinois finished second by just tenths of a point. Pummer fell from the high bar just three days before the meet started. He has an acute bruise and will be competing with a protruding collarbone.

Yamauchi competed in the team finals at Big Tens, but sat out the event finals with an ankle injury. The Illini’s narrow defeat to Ohio State, Pummer said, increased the team’s confidence because two key competitors were missing.

“I think it kind of put it in perspective for the guys that were kind of doubting our team scores before,” Pummer said. “If anything good came out of me staying out of Big Tens, it was helping the other guys bring up their confidence level, and know that if we hit, nobody can beat us.”

Spring, in contention for the all-around title after winning the all-around at Big Tens and being Big Ten Gymnast of the Year, says that the perfection needed to win the title is what makes it so difficult.

“You can’t really have any mistakes, you’re gonna have a team that’s going to miss only one or two routines,” he said. “If you have two missed routines in the same event, you’re in deep water.”

The Illini will get their biggest challenge on pommel horse, just as the team in 1989 did, and on floor exercise. The lingering injuries to Pummer and Yamauchi, two of the team’s best tumblers, could pose potential problems. Ranked fifth in the nation on both events, the Illini will look to a few key gymnasts: freshman Chris Lung and senior Ted Brown on pommel horse, who finished second and third, respectively, on the event at Big Tens, and sophomore Wesley Haagensen and Spring on floor exercise.

The team is ranked first on vault with an average score of 36.950 points and will also its last event tonight.

Illinois’ greatest competition will come from Oklahoma, who has won the title the last three of four years, and boasts the No. 1 all-arounder in sophomore Jonathan Horton, No. 2 Stanford with third-ranked all-arounder David Sender and No. 5 California.

With the amount of injuries the Illini have had to deal with and the near completion of a long four-month season, Spring said he is impressed with the attitude in the gym, which makes him believe there’s no reason Illinois couldn’t bring a first-place trophy back to Champaign.

“I’m blown away by the amount of dedication, how many routines I’ve seen guys throw up, all the positives,” he said, “that’s exciting.”