Nothing.

Nothing is what crossed freshman Summer Clancy’s mind as she stepped up the podium stairs, ran down the vault runway and stuck her Yurchenko 1.5 for a career-best 9.900. She earned herself All-Conference honors in her first season with the Illini.

“I try to have a goldfish mentality and focus on my box breathing, because if my mind is calm, I can perform like I do in the gym,” Clancy said. 

Illinois (5-14, 1-8) heartily embraced the goldfish mentality during the Big Ten championships, after suffering two falls on the balance beam in the second rotation. 

Illinois competed in the first of three sessions against its conference opponents Rutgers (12-7, 2-7), Washington (5-13, 2-7) and Nebraska (7-8, 3-6), finishing in third.

Head coach Josh Nilson has readily acknowledged the trials and tribulations of the team this year. However, while admitting that he’d rather not have gone through them, they’ll make the group stronger for the future.

“You learn an athlete’s character in moments like this,” Nilson said. “We did everything we could today and this team has learned a lot of lessons in that way. But I don’t want to learn these lessons again.”

Early battles

The Illini began on its highest-ranked event, the uneven bars, where they are No. 34 in the country and have a national qualifying score of 48.883. Unfortunately, they couldn’t capitalize on their strengths, scoring subpar 9.600 numbers throughout the whole rotation until the end, where sophomore Chloe Cho soared.

In general, Cho was sublime during the first day of competition. She performed her Maloney + Pak combination with great float and finesse and nailed her Van Leeuwen and double layout dismount. 

Junior Lyden Saltness followed, falling on her Ray release move. You could see it as soon as she let go of the bar; she had too much momentum going into the toe-on and pushed herself too far back to regrasp.

Thankfully, freshman Piper Gow mitigated the Illini counting a fall by working through her routine. Despite the form deductions, she made great strides this season and found herself in the clutch sixth position.

It’s discernible that Illinois was very hot and cold throughout the session. Cho says that it’s difficult because the whole team is so close and really cares for each other. But even though they’re all competing for the team, only one person mounts the event at a time.

“I’ve really learned in college to just have a little bit of separation from myself and from the teammates in front of me,” Cho said. “It’s like, you support them, you cheer for them, but it’s also about staying in your own headspace which really helps me.”

Nilson emphasized this balance between the emotions and passion alongside the pragmatic thoughts as something that can be put into a greater context.

“So a lot of times emotions and things like that come into play, and we’re trying to become athletes that know, ‘Okay, if I do this, it leads to this,’” Nilson said. “So that’s really key with a really young team that’s starting to figure it out, knowing gymnastics is process-based, which then impacts the result.”

The freshman and sophomore classes for the Illini have been excellent this year, contributing 16 of 24 routines in this Big Ten championship campaign. That’s two-thirds of all routines. With this being Nilson’s first year at the helm, there’s a lot of room for improvement for both parties, and he’s excited about what’s to come.

“Well, I can tell you, they’re extremely talented, and they’re not done yet,” Nilson said. “The cool thing about being in a position like this is that 60% of our routines last year had to be replaced. Freshmen came in and took those spots and usually, freshmen don’t get to compete this much. Now they will be sophomores that are very seasoned and experienced.”

Staying in the bubble

This leadership from the Illini underclassmen was relied upon when struggles surfaced from their upperclassmen. Senior Alea Byrne and junior Olivia Coppola both fell on their acrobatic elements. However, as they’ve been all season, young stars Clancy and Cho were unfazed on their approach to the apparatus. They were buoyant on their skills, absorbing the beam, pressing into it as they took off for flight elements and fighting to stick their landings.

When trying to avoid the pressure building, Clancy says she reminds herself to have fun like when she first joined the sport.

“I try to think back to why I started the sport whenever I go into competition,” Clancy said. “I feel like at first I was like, ‘Whoa, this is like a huge crowd,’ but now I’m recognizing that we’re here to have fun, and that’s when you do your best.”

The Illini remained disciplined throughout the last month of the season, with no rotation score dipping below 48.500.

Connectivity and trusting yourself have been huge memos from Nilson. Treating practice like competition and understanding that good things may take some time and hard work are program focuses. Cho says that the team buy-in has contributed to the progress made.

“I think something we’ve talked about a lot is just always planning on your routine counting,” Cho said. “It really doesn’t matter what anyone else does before you, because you have to do the same thing, and do your job.” 

Finishing strong

The Illini finished the meet with their second-highest vault total of the season and third-highest floor total of the season, scoring a 48.875 and 49.075, respectively. 

Sophomore Eden King took up her spot as anchor and scored a third-straight 9.900. This score was enough to qualify for regionals in a moment she described as surreal. 

“It’s such a crazy full circle, and if you would have told me when I got injured that this would happen, I would have not believed you,” King said. “I’m so thankful to my coaches and my teammates for having my back all season and just being there for me and letting it happen on the floor.”

In the pre-season, she rolled her ankle badly on her 1.5 + front full pass, putting her season in jeopardy. But while she was on the sideline, she developed her role as a young leader on the team.

“Being a sophomore this year, I know what I’m doing,” King said. “Bringing in that leadership and helping to guide the freshmen through high-pressure environments and loud arenas is something that I’m going to bring back for next season.” 

Looking ahead

Illinois has qualified four individuals to regionals, with three of them being underclassmen. This is a sign that the building blocks Nilson has been piecing together may finally be creating something contentious soon.

“When I started the team up, I told them, ‘Remember the lessons you’ve learned,’” Nilson said. “Next year, we bring in an incredible class with two international elites coming in, and if we can remember what we’ve learned and build on it, next year will be completely unrecognizable.”

Despite missing regionals as a team for the first time in over 20 years, there’s a positive attitude in the Illini locker room. The ambiance points to a solid foundation that Nilson spent all season trying to cultivate and inspire. Sometimes, those wins matter more than the numerical ones.

“I told the girls that qualified for regionals to take it all in and learn as much as you can,” Nilson said. “Let’s come here for that experience so we can go back, teach the team and bring everyone next year to see how far we can go.”

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