Illinois men’s gymnastics had a memorable 2023 season. From an impressive 17-11 overall record that held several wins over top-ranked opponents to succeeding at the highest stage in the postseason, the Illini continue to raise the bar for themselves.
A third-place finish in the NCAA championships was the highest Illinois had finished since 2018. On top of that, two Illini took home individual titles for the first time since 2012. Then-graduate student Ian Skirkey won on the pommel horse with an exceptional score of 14.800, while Ashton Anaya, who was a sophomore at the time, won on rings with a score of 14.471. Anaya contributed to a long line of success on rings, being the sixth athlete from Illinois to top the event in the past seven years.
As recognition for the stellar year, several Illini took home Big Ten honors. Four Illini athletes earned All-Big Ten first-team honors, including Anaya, Skirkey, then-senior Connor McCool and then-graduate student Michael Fletcher. Three Illini athletes made the All-Big Ten second team: then-sophomore Max Farkhadau, then-senior Evan Manivong and then-graduate student David Pochinka. McCool was also honored with a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
With expectations through the roof, the biggest thing for the Illini this year might be the Big Ten championship, which will be hosted at the State Farm Center in Champaign.
“We got a familiar crowd that will be favorable to us,” McCool said. “We’re going to have the loudest cheers and have that energy. It really is insane how having an interactive crowd and people that are rooting for you really does affect momentum, and if something goes wrong, it doesn’t feel like a big deal because you have people behind you. It just feels like a much more exciting environment versus when you’re away, you do kind of feel that sense of being alone. It is nice to have the fan base behind you.”
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The advantages of hosting go beyond having the home crowd behind McCool and the Illini. Being in their usual environment and already having a feel for each aspect of their event will make all the difference for Illinois.
“It’s going to be all familiar equipment,” McCool said. “The equipment we compete in at our home gym, we know it, so we have that advantage. We’ll compete on the floor a few times before the Big Ten championships, and then we’ll bring it from Huff to State Farm. We get to have the familiar equipment we are used to, so that’s another competitive advantage. We don’t have any adjustments we need to do on meet day. We’ll know what to do. Other teams will have to come in and feel it out, and we’ll be ready, so that should help us as well. We’re feeling really good about it with how competitive the Big Ten is with any edge we can get. It’s important, so we’re excited we get to host it this year.”
Illinois has worked hard to bring in talent, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by McCool, who believes having a lot more all-around athletes gives the team more flexibility with who is competing at each meet, which also allows the athletes to rest.
“This year, we have the talent to stack up,” McCool said. “We’re really excited to see how it plays out. We’ve got a lot of hard-working guys, a lot of great gymnastics. The more events you can get out of each athlete, the better. You just have options and depth. This year we’ll have options, and we can also rest people so our all-arounders don’t have to do every single event at every meet, so we can try out different lineups.”
Illinois men’s gymnastics kicks off its 2024 season on Jan. 13 in Chicago at the Windy City Invitational, with home play beginning two weeks later against Oklahoma.
