He only had to wait one year.

Junior Wes Haagensen, following last season’s runner-up finish to former teammate Justin Spring in the Big Ten All-Around competition, won the award himself over the weekend.

In Friday night’s festivities, Haagensen unleashed on all cylinders.

He hit in all six events at the Big Ten men’s gymnastics championships in Minnesota to earn the All-Around championship and title of Big Ten Gymnast of the Year.

His score of 54.450 edged-out Penn State’s Casey Sandy for the all-around title.

It was a performance one year in the making, but from the sound of it, entirely worth the wait.

Just reflecting on his accomplishment, speaking over the phone from a Minnesota restaurant with the rest of his team, Haagensen lost his breath in excitement.

“It was awesome,” he said Friday night. “It was one of my goals for the year, definitely. It was a battle though … it came down to the very end. It was one of those meets where it came down to whether I hit on our last event or not. I did, so I’m really excited. We have some work to do now, but it feels awesome.”

If there was one person on the Illini side of the gym as excited as Haagensen, it was head coach Yoshi Hayasaki.

Following the conclusion of the team’s medal ceremony, Hayasaki was on a mission to get the word out that his prized gymnast came through. In a voice mail message, the coach was decidedly proud of Haagensen’s performance.

“This is big news,” he said. “This is big.”

But Hayasaki didn’t stop there. When reached later, he was still bubbling.

“We’ve got an all-around champion,” he said. “We have a champion. I’m very proud of Wesley. We had Justin Spring last year. This year, we repeated. Wesley hit on all six events the way he wanted. It’s a great feat for him to do this. It goes down in history.”

There was no question after last year’s Big Ten performance that Haagensen’s age was not a factor – he’s a competitor.

This year, even though he’s still only a junior, Haagensen showed again why his teammates have looked up to him all season and why he’s such a threat heading into the NCAA Championships in two weeks.

“It’s really an accomplishment to be a junior All-Arounder and the Big Ten champion,” Hayasaki said. “It was a tough field and for him to be able to do this is a big deal.”

Spring, watching from the sidelines as an Illinois assistant coach, remarked that Wes’ accomplishment brought back good memories.

Just a year ago, Spring was competing to be the best collegiate gymnast, pulling in the same awards Haagensen won over the weekend.

This time, though, it was Haagensen’s turn.

“Yea, it was funny, he almost did exactly what I did a year ago,” Spring said. “It made me wish I was out there myself.”

Has the torch officially been passed?

“I think so,” Spring said. “It almost felt like that – passing the torch down. Definitely, we’d love to have an Illini win the All-Around and Gymnast of the Year every year. I didn’t win it until I was a senior, so Wes is really ahead of the curve.”