After putting up an impressive 409.400 points and earning a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten championships, Illinois men’s gymnastics took a trip to State College, Pennsylvania, for another round of championships, this time on the national stage. Featuring two days of competition, the Illini’s first performance secured them a spot in the aptly named “Super 6,” before their showing on the second day was good for a third-place finish and two individual national champions.

Illinois’ quest began at noon on Friday, where there was a bit of a step back from its last performance, but still ultimately good enough to advance to the final round. Totaling 405.524 points, the Illini cracked 14 points in all events but the high bar, with graduate student Ian Skirkey leading in individual performances with a competition-high 14.933 points on pommel horse.

Also leading the way for the Illini were seniors Connor McCool and Evan Manivong, graduate students David Pochinka and Michael Fletcher and sophomore Amari Sewell. These five all cracked 14 points in at least one event, with McCool managing to put up a staggering 14.700 on the floor and 14.200 in vault.

The Illini’s crowning achievement during the qualifiers was their showing in vault, with Sewell, Fletcher and Manivong posting 14.633, 14.500 and 14.466 respectively. The only sub-14-point performance was senior Josh Cook, who was just 0.1 points shy at 13.900.

Moving on to the Super 6, Illinois was competing against Stanford, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Penn State for a shot at history. Not shying away from the moment, the Illini brought their game to a whole new level with the championship on the line, totaling over 10 points higher than in qualifying.

Illinois doubled down on its captivating vault performances, this time around hitting the mark on all five competitors breaking the 14-point mark. Within the competition, Sewell, McCool and Manivong led the way with particularly impressive marks of 14.866, 14.500 and 14.500 respectively.

Following closely behind, the Illini’s second-best all-around event was the floor, helmed by 14.533 points from McCool and 13.933 from Cook.

The remaining three events all hovering around 67 and 68 points when the Illini were finished, however, two of them contained Illinois’ best individual showings of the day. Looking to pommel horse, Skirkey’s team-high 14.933 points in the qualifying round was quickly one-upped — by Skirkey himself. The Massachusetts native put on an absolute show, earning an astonishing 15.133 points which eventually proved to be the highest score in the event on the entire day, making Skirkey a two-time NCAA champion, as he was the NCAA pommel horse champion in 2021.

Still bars saw a very similar story, as sophomore Ashton Ayana improved upon his already magnificent 14.400 score in qualifying and posted 14.800 in the Super 6. On top of leading the Illini in the event, Ayana’s score proved to be the best across all six teams, marking yet another NCAA champion for the Illini.

Despite having top individual performances in two different events, cracking 70 total points in another two and earning their best total score of the entire season the Illini ultimately fell almost four points shy of second place and nearly seven points out of first place Stanford. Nonetheless, Illinois finished its season on a bang and went home with an official third place trophy for the team along with two individual champions in Skirkey and Ayana.

Head coach Daniel Ribeiro could not have been prouder of his squad, emphasizing that Illinois’ accomplishments would not have been possible without each individual’s commitments.

“This was a magical finish to an already incredible season,” Ribeiro explained. “This was a selfless team with a special energy and it all came together on the final night at NCAAs. We could not have done this without the support of my assistant coaches and support staff. This was an all-out team effort, and everyone deserves credit for this special season.”

Illinois men’s gymnastics will return to action next fall, looking to build upon and defend its status as one of the nation’s top gymnastics program.

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