The Illinois men’s gymnastics team was able to walk away from Saturday’s individual NCAA championship finals in Norman, Okla., much happier than it had the day before. Although bittersweet after not capturing the team title, the Illini earned 14 All-America honors, with two coming in Friday’s all-around – almost surpassing the 1941 team’s mark of 16.

Senior Justin Spring, this year’s Nissen-Emery winner, capped off his storybook career as he added two more national championship accolades to his resume. The 2004 high bar winner and 2005 parallel bars champion finished the 2006 season with both titles.

“He proved that he is the best on both events,” head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. “Justin continues to wow everyone who comes to watch him and every competitor who competed at NCAA’s.”

Spring shared the top spot on high bar with Stanford’s Dylan Carney after both finished with a 9.700, and won parallel bars with a 9.825, a new career-best. Spring’s All-America honors this year in floor exercise, vault, parallel bars and high bar brought his total to 12, the highest total since Abie Grossfeld accomplished the feat from 1957-59. Spring’s two titles are the most since Grossfeld won three in 1958.

“I feel like I accomplished all that I could’ve in the sport of NCAA gymnastics,” he said. “I can leave I guess on a high note personally, but at the same time it’s so great to be part of something together.

“We walked away from the trip with our heads still up, maybe not that day after team finals, but we realized it was an amazing four years; I had an amazing time with these guys.”

The Illini made their greatest turnaround Saturday – and got a bit of redemption – when they swept the top three spots on parallel bars. Finishing second was senior Adam Pummer with a 9.450, competing with an acute bruise on his collar bone. Sophomore Wesley Haagensen, in his first NCAA event finals, finished in third place with a 9.162.

Pummer also earned All-America honors on floor exercise as he finished in sixth place with a score of 9.350. The Allentown, Penn., native now has a total of eight All-America certificates after earning four last year and two during the 2004 season. Haagensen also finished in fifth place on floor to earn two certificates of his own. All-America honors go to the top eight individuals on each event.

Although Haagensen performed last on parallel bars and watched Pummer and Spring go before him, he said the pressure was nothing compared to that of the team finals. The team finals, he said, was the most intense gymnastics meet he had ever competed in.

The best part of Illinois winning 14 All-America honors, Pummer said, was proving to people that Illinois was the best team in the country, even if it came away without the championship trophy. The total number of awards, he said, felt better than the individual accomplishments.

With three new gymnasts receiving All-America honors this year, Hayasaki said that it was a very nice recognition for those honored.

“Our team is not just Justin Spring and Adam Pummer,” Hayasaki said. “We had to have other guys doing well – just people that everyone hadn’t noticed all year.”

In addition to Haagensen’s honors, sophomore Tyler Yamauchi finished eighth on rings with a score of 9.287; it was his second consecutive All-America honor. Sophomore Ross Bradley finished eighth on high bar with a 9.325, while freshman Chris Lung had a fifth-place finish on pommel horse with a 8.925. Both received the honor for the first time.

But it was senior Ted Brown, who won his first All-America honor of the year, that came closest to winning an individual national title aside from Spring. Brown finished in second place on pommel horse with a 9.312, a career-best. Although he finished just shy of first, Brown said he was happy with the end result.

“It would have been disappointing if I had small mistakes in my routine, but I feel like it was the best routine that I’ve done in college,” Brown said. “Even though it ended short, I’m happy because I know that I did the best I could.”