A reloaded Illinois men’s gymnastics squad is prepared for yet another NCAA national championship run after a fifth-place finish at the competition last year. The combination of experienced returning talent and the addition of a star-studded freshman class may be the recipe the Illini need to claim the NCAA title this season.
A season to remember
At the end of the 2024 regular season, Illinois finished No. 4 in the NCAA rankings and No. 2 in the Big Ten behind Michigan. It also ended the season with an overall record of 20-9.
This type of success started early in the year when Illinois defeated No. 1 Oklahoma in its home opener at Huff Hall on Jan. 28. Keeping momentum and morale high throughout the meet led to an ultimate victory for the Illini.
Days later, Illinois finished with another ranked win against No. 3 Michigan in its Big Ten season opener after improving on its mistakes from the meet before. The Illini finished with a 3-1 Big Ten record and captured the team’s first-ever Big Ten regular season title in team history.
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At the Big Ten championship, the Illini finished No. 2 behind the Wolverines with a total team score of 413.7500 at State Farm Center. Illinois was one of 12 teams chosen for the 2024 NCAA national championships and advanced to the final round with six teams left. The Illini ended the meet No. 5 out of all teams, a solid way to cap off their year.
Back, better than ever
Even after a top-five national finish last season, the Illini are in a position to make an even better run in 2025 because of their returning athletes.
One of the big names returning for Illinois this season is junior Tate Costa. Costa was the 2024 national champion on the horizontal bar and earned All-American honors for that event and the all-around.
Costa was also the first Illinois men’s gymnast to win the horizontal bar event since 2015 and received All-American honors for two events since 2019. This past summer, Costa qualified for the 2024 Olympic Trials in Minnesota. Although he didn’t make the team, he aspires to compete for Team USA in 2028.
Another returning standout from last year’s squad is sophomore Brandon Dang. On his specialty, the pommel horse, Dang finished the 2024 season with eight titles in the event. He even won a pommel horse title at the Big Ten championship.
At the NCAA national championship, Dang finished No. 3 in the event. His freshman-year accolades included Big Ten Rookie of the Year and All-American honors for the pommel horse.
Other key returners include fifth-year Will Hauke, senior Amari Sewell, junior Ryan Vanichtheeranont and sophomores Preston Ngai and Garrett Schooley.
Reloaded
Head coach Daniel Ribeiro added five new freshman stars to his already-loaded roster. All have the opportunity to contribute to the Illini’s anticipated 2025 success.
Ribeiro announced in November 2023 that all-around gymnasts Hasan Aydogdu, Matthew Ngyuen and Ian Sandoval signed to join the team in fall 2024. He signed two more all-around specialists, Jax Washburn and Nathan Whitaker, in April 2024.
The one new addition to the Illinois roster that fans should look out for this season is graduate transfer Sam Phillips. Phillips spent the last four years at Nebraska, where he helped lead Nebraska to a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, an NCAA high bar All-American and an all-around All-American.
These six additions to Ribeiro’s roster will add team depth in all events and continue to build on the success that Illinois saw last season.
Looking at the schedule
After the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 18, Illinois will face Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan, which were all teams that beat Illinois at the NCAA national championships last spring.
Other opponents for Illinois before the Big Ten championships include Army, Greenville, Penn State and Ohio State. But first, the Illini will kick off their season on Saturday, Dec. 14, with their Orange and Blue meet at Huff Hall at noon.
