There was no spot available on the 2013 senior national team for Illinois.

After two days of rigorous competition at the U.S. Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas, the three men representing the Illini fell short of earning a spot on the team. After the first day of competition, senior Yoshi Mori was ranked 21st in the all-around and tied for 12th on the pommel horse, but his injuries earlier in the season continued to affect his performance.

“Anytime an injury takes an athlete out of their training schedule, especially in the most critical time frame, it’s going to damage their ability to perform at the highest level,” Illinois head coach Justin Spring said. “Gymnastics is not like basketball, soccer or football, where as long as you are healthy come gameday, you’re still going to retain your skills. It doesn’t work that way.”

Jordan Valdez finished in the top 20 on both of the events he competed on, ranking 13th on the high bar and 17th on the parallel bars. Though he had a crowd-pleasing routine, small mistakes cost him.

“I was hoping he would hit his high bar routine a little better,” Spring said. “It looked like he had some grip issues where he slipped off a few times. It was an exciting routine in that way. He had some release moves that were fingertip catches, which wowed the audience, but he certainly got penalized quite a bit.”

Chad Mason was the only Illini who did not advance to the Winter Cup finals. Mason was only competing on the pommel horse as an event specialist. He posted a 13.650 the first night, which was not a high enough for him to advance. Mason struggled with a new dismount that had to be changed a week before the competition.

“He needed one extra hand placement toward the end of the pommel horse, so we had been flirting with some new dismounts,” Spring said. “For the most part his routine was great, and where he struggled was the dismount. Once he gets a few more numbers under his belt as we go into the season and postseason, he’s going to be just fine.”

Two former Illini — Paul Ruggeri and Luke Stannard — had successful first- and second-day appearances. Ruggeri had three top-five performances the first day of competition on the high bar, vault and parallel bars. He also finished 11th in the all-around. After two days of competition, Ruggeri retained his spot on the senior national team for the seventh time.

“He made a few changes from last year and he kept up his endurance,” Spring said. “He looks good, he looks confident and I’m proud of him. To be honest, looking at him train I was expecting him to make the team like he has done so many times in the past.”

Ruggeri finished the competition ranked second on the vault and the high bar, posting two-day cumulative scores of 30.150 and 29.500, respectively. He also placed top 10 on the parallel bars, the floor and the all-around.

“Paul’s a gamer,” Mori said. “He’s an amazing, talented gymnast. He hit really well at the meet and I think he definitely deserved it.”

Stannard finished the first night ranked 12th in the all-around — one spot behind Ruggeri — and fifth on the pommel horse. He was not elected onto the national team but finished the meet placing sixth on the pommel horse, seventh on the floor and 14th in the all-around.

Though no current Illini made the national team, their heads are held high. Valdez is already thinking about preparing for the Visa Championships this summer, when there will be another opportunity to secure a spot on national team.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Valdez said. “I still have plenty of time to make it in the following years, and I felt like I’ll be much more prepared when Visas comes around toward the end of the summer.”

Also, a USA Gymnastics committee denied C.J. Maestas’ petition this weekend. Maestas did not secure a spot on the national team or receive an unranked, unfunded spot. He will still be invited to the training camps but will not be recognized as a member.

“Because he is not quite doing gymnastics, they couldn’t justify using a national team spot for him,” Spring said. “I was hoping at least for an unranked, unfunded spot, but they chose to go another way. For C.J., it won’t make a difference one way or another. He will continue to train and push his career here, and we’ll get him ready when it really counts at the end of the summer.”

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