Select members of No. 3 Illinois men’s gymnastics are traveling to Louisville, Kentucky, for the Winter Cup. Graduate student Connor McCool, sophomore Tate Costa and freshman Brandon Dang will face two former Illini, Alex Diab and Jordan Kovach, and incoming freshman Ian Sandoval.
This will be the second time this season that the Illini meet up with Diab since he was a member of the Evo Senior Elite men’s gymnastics team, which the Illini saw earlier this month. The Winter Cup serves as a qualifying event to determine who could compete at the 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Championship. The men’s junior and national teams will also be determined at the Winter Cup.
This is McCool’s second Winter Cup this year. He competed last year and qualified for the 2023 U.S. Championship, which took place in August. Both Costa and Dang earned their ticket to the Winter Cup via one of the four qualifying meets.
Head coach and Illinois men’s gymnastics alumn Daniel Ribeiro spoke about how the team has been practicing during their couple weeks of break from competing. Ribiero said they are trying to add as many improvements to their scores as they can.
“Having these couple of bye weeks for the team in general gave us the opportunity to focus a little more on strength,” Ribeiro said. “Trying to see if we can add a few tenths or a few points to our total team score.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
As for the competitiveness within the team, Ribiero said that the whole team pushes each other to try and line up. Ribiero explained that the environment is competitive and they have a system focused on consistency which can help them maintain their wins.
“When you have an entire team of 20 guys that are all doing it together and they’re all pushing each other to make line up, it’s a super competitive environment,” Ribeiro said. “With our system focused on consistency, we’re not a team that’s going to have a meltdown.”
The Illini have blown through their schedule from a record perspective and sit at 9-1 overall. However, final scores have begun to move closer and Ribeiro mentioned that the team’s dedication for the past eight months has allowed it to be where it is right now.
“The last few meets have been some really close wins,” Ribeiro said. “It comes down to our consistency and what the guys have put in for the last eight months to get where they are right now.”
The past eight months of training for Illinois is paying off now that it is beginning to enter the second half of its season. In its first half, it claimed wins over No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 4 Michigan.
Costa, Dang and McCool will represent Illinois men’s gymnastics at the 2024 Winter Cup in Louisville, Kentucky. The Winter Cup will take place on Feb. 23-25 at 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. CT.
