Prior to Saturday night, it had been two years since senior Chad Wiest took the floor at a gymnastics meet. However, that didn’t show as he performed a nearly flawless floor routine at the Windy City Invitational in Chicago.

Wiest took first place on the floor exercise with a career-high score of 15.650, the second-highest score on the event by an Illini under the FIG open-ended code. He contributed to the now No. 1 Illinois squad that posted a score of 353.750 to take first place.

“For Chad to come back after this time and be able to perform like that, it’s just amazing,” teammate Daniel Ribeiro said. “He did a great routine, which contributed a lot to the entire teams momentum.”

Wiest had been out of competitive action for two years, after breaking his arm two years ago at the Big Ten Championships.

“Chad just went through a living nightmare with his arm, it was terrible,” head coach Justin Spring said.

Wiest broke his arm his sophomore year and was out his entire junior year. While trying to come back, he had several complications with his arm and elbow and was forced to have multiple surgeries. Despite the injury, Wiest never lost his drive to compete and do better.

“I just kept trying to come back and doing whatever it took,” Wiest said.

Spring said that Wiest’s drive and determination is what feeds his success.

“He is not the quickest worker at all, but he is definitely one of the hardest workers. He is usually the first one in and he’s always, always the last one out of the gym at night,” Spring said. “This is because he doesn’t pick up things very quickly, but he’s so determined and so focused to be one of the top athletes on this team and one of the top athletes in the country.

“He gets the work done, he goes at his own pace, but he gets it done. It’s really impressive to see how much he’s excelled.”

Wiest was happy to “finally” be back competing.

“I want to do better, but it felt great to be back out there and doing it again, I was just so happy to be back,” Wiest said. “My arm feels great and I feel back to the same level I was at before.”

Even with his floor title, Wiest was not pleased with his overall performance.

“Typical Chad, he was pretty angry after the meet because he made a couple mistakes on parallel and high bars, but he’s a super competitor,” Spring said. “He’s a perfectionist and you kind of have to be one when you’re a gymnast.”

Wiest wants to strengthen his performances on parallel and high bars, which he thought were too shaky at the Windy City Invitational.

“I want to improve in the other events and continue increasing my difficulty because I know that I have the potential to do better now,” Wiest said.

Spring said that Wiest’s other most promising event is the vault, which Wiest performed a “watered down” routine in on Saturday because they did not want Wiest to get re-injured. Spring said he has the potential to be one of the team’s top vaulters this season. However, the floor stands as Wiest’s best event.

“He has one of the highest start values in the country on the floor. He is a competitor against the best in this country,” Spring said. “One of his biggest competitions will be his own teammate PaulRuggeri, but I think Chad is going to give everyone a run for their money. He definitely has his sights set on being the best, and he’s going to be in contention for the national title.”