A few days removed from Saturday’s Windy City Invite, Illinois men’s gymnastics coach Yoshi Hayasaki is playing the part of an old-school Nostradamus, projecting his Illinois team to blossom into one of the toughest in the NCAA.

After finishing last season fifth in the nation, the eighth-ranked Illini upset three Big Ten teams in the Chicago competition, finishing second only to No. 1 ranked Stanford.

It was a start not without its stumbles, but under a new scoring system Illinois earned 347.350 points to Stanford’s 354.450 and leapfrogged No. 4 Ohio State, No. 6 Michigan and No. 7 Minnesota to take second in consecutive years.

“That finish is encouraging,” Hayasaki said. “We made some mistakes like every other team does in the first competition of the year, but we still finished second.

“And from the looks of it, we’re not far from Stanford.”

That statement packs a punch, as Stanford, who plays host to the NCAA Championships later this year, has been pegged by many as the favorite to be national champions. With the Illini’s mix of veteran leadership — led by five seniors and the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year in Wes Haagensen – paired with a few highly regarded recruits, Hayasaki has been gushing since the preseason.

“I think we’re a little more consistent than last year,” Hayasaki said.

“We have a little more balance. We had some weak events, like pommel horse last year, that held us back. This year’s team has good balance without any glaring weaknesses. If we can just start filling in some areas where we have injuries, that could only make us better.”

To offset injuries to Andres Saavedra, Chris Silcox, All-American Ross Bradley and senior All-American Wes Haagensen, Hayasaki relied on strong performances from a flurry of youngsters, including Luke Stannard, Chad Wiest and Dan Ribeiro, to carry the team.

Stannard, rebounding from an injury that kept him out for most of last season, had scores on floor exercise, pommel horse, vault and high bar count toward the team totals.

In Stanford, all he sees is formidable competition.

“Sure, they’re a very good team this year,” he said. “We try not to watch other teams when we’re competing, but we looked over at them when they were competing and they’re very good. But we definitely have them in our sights.”

Arlington Heights, Ill. gymnast David Sender, a senior at Stanford, outscored every other all-around competitor with an 89.600.

Two University of Illinois-Chicago competitors, Neal Thompson and Anthony May, finished second and third, respectively, almost seven points behind.

Haagensen, who enters the season as a front runner for the Nissen Emery award, was pulled out of the all-around competition because of nagging problems with his quadriceps.

Top recruit Paul Ruggeri, a New York native, stepped in and finished ninth in the all-around competition.

“We got so much depth,” freshman pommel specialist Ribeiro said.

“With Wes’s quads really bugging him, Paul was able to just step right in there. He can help us out in any event when we need it. He’s really great.”