After sophmore C.J. Maestas tore his right tricep during the preseason, the Illinois men’s gymnastic team’s search for a new leader began. Senior Yoshi Mori was expected to lead the team in Maestas’ place, in part because of his experience from the 2012 Visa Championships, but he also suffered a preseason injury — to his collarbone. After only being in the gym at full health for one week, Mori took third in the all-around and first on the pommel horse with a career-high score of 15.3 on Saturday at the Windy City Invitational.

“Obviously the loss of C.J. hurts bad, but I think Yoshi understands that we need him in a big way,” senior Vince Smurro said. “He’s coming off of a big injury too, which is a nagging thing, and for him to step up like that is a great thing. I think everyone knows we really need him to step up if we want to be successful.”

Illinois tied for second with Ohio State, scoring a 427.750, falling just behind Michigan, which earned a 431.300. Minnesota placed fourth (425.750), followed by Iowa (422.350) and Illinois (Chicago) (401.600). Many Illini made their debut appearance this season after coming back from injuries suffered during the preseason. After only practicing his routine on the floor exercise for four days, Smurro competed on the three events at the Windy City Invitational.

“Vince has been looking good at practice,” Illinois head coach Justin Spring said. “The power was there, it’s just the endurance at the end of the set wasn’t, but we know that he is a competitor and did very well for us all last year. Sometimes you just have to look at potential.”

The new six-up, five-count format is causing major changes in lineups, and Illinois is still struggling to adapt. 

There is now only one score that will not be counted in the team’s total for each event, as opposed to two scores not counted in years past. This puts more pressure on individual gymnasts than in past seasons.

“We’ve got to look at consistency a little bit more and that has a little bit more weight behind it this year because of the added score that we are counting,” Spring said. “Especially when we are going to the five-up, five-count in March, that’s going to be the most concerning factor when choosing lineups.”

The intensity of the season rose this weekend after the Illini competed alongside some of their Big Ten rivals. It was the first invitational the freshmen competed in and the energy from the crowd was high. Illinois got a taste of what both the atmosphere and the competition will be like later on this season.

“The Windy City is a good meet because it’s basically a mini Big Ten (Championship), without Penn State,” Smurro said. “It was definitely interesting to see what other teams are working on and how they are coming along. UIC last week was kinda just a warm up, but the freshmen got to feel the intense energy Saturday and it’s one of the most fun meets of the year.”

This is the second year in a row that Illinois has finished one place short of taking the Windy City Invitational title. The last time the Illini clinched the title was in 2011. Though the close finish brings disappointment, Illinois won’t let it affect the outcome of future competitions.

“We’re not really looking at any other teams,” Mori said. “We aren’t really focusing on why Michigan beat us. We are trying to do our own thing, like an ‘all eyes on us’ type of thing. We’re not very far behind and we know there are a lot of improvements that we need to make. This was a good wake-up call for us to find out what we did wrong and fix it.”

Gina can be reached at [email protected] and @muelle30.