The Illinois men’s gymnastics team opened eyes this weekend, but not in the way it was hoping.

Saturday marked the annual Gym Jam competition, where the Illinois men’s and women’s gymnastics teams compete alongside each other. Heading into the competition, the Illini were favored to win. However, they fell to Iowa 428.450-428.400. It’s been 12 years since Illinois’ men’s gymnasts last lost to Iowa.

“If anything, I hope this slaps some people in the face,” senior Vince Smurro said. “Everyone’s been working hard in the gym, I can’t say that people have been slacking off, but if anything, this is a great wake-up call. Losing to Iowa by half a 10th hurts. I hope people come into the gym angry, pissed off and ready to go.”

Illinois started the night on the floor, having some uncharacteristic falls. These mistakes seemed to transfer to almost every other event throughout the night. The consistency the Illini were trying to achieve was lost.

“You can’t let mistakes get to you like this and that’s what happened,” Illinois head coach Justin Spring said. “We made a few early mistakes on floor and it kind of snowballed. We weren’t able to rebound.”

Huff Hall was packed to the ceiling with orange and blue fans, recording an attendance of 2,316 people. Spring said that having a larger crowd for the men’s competitions has always been a goal since he took over as head coach. Spring said Illinois’ energy didn’t match the crowd’s.

“Last week’s inter-squad meet went fantastic,” Spring said. “This is not the team we were a week ago, so something went wrong in competition. We lost some energy and they didn’t rise to the occasion. That’s a little unsettling.”

Illinois’ best event of the night was the still rings. The Illini posted at 73.850 and sophomore Mike Wilner claimed the event title with a 15.5. Freshman Joey Peters took second on the event with a 14.7.

The Illini then went on to post a season-high team score on the vault with a 73.150. Illinois swept the top-four event title spots, starting with freshman Fred Hartville in first (15.1) and sophomore Josh Wilson in second with a 14.8, earning a new career-best, followed by senior Yoshi Mori in third (14.65) and redshirt freshman Jacob Tisley in fourth (14.6).

Illinois needed to have consistent performances in its last two rotations, but faltered, scoring a 67.850 on the parallel bars and a 70.050 on high bar. Peters took second in the all-around with an 84.100 and Mori finished fourth with an 83.150.

Illinois has had the past three weeks off from competition with plenty time to prepare for the meet this past weekend. With all the injuries that have occurred, it was much needed, but the performance may have been affected by the time off.

“I liked the break,” junior Cameron Rogers said. “I’m still trying to get fully healthy, so it was nice to be able to polish up some routines, but it might have threw some of the guys off who haven’t gotten into the groove of competition. We competed three weeks in a row, people were starting to figure it out, and then we had three weeks off.”

With their confidence stricken, the Illini will be traveling next to No. 5 Ohio State. Illinois has seen Ohio State in competition twice already this season, tying the Buckeyes at the Windy City Invitational and finishing one place behind them at the Metroplex Challenge.

“I can give you a lot of excuses but the fact of the matter is that they didn’t rise to the occasion in competition and I know that they are perfectly capable of doing that,” Spring said. “Back to the drawing board to try and figure it out. We have a very strong competitor next weekend, a four-day turnaround before we leave for Ohio State, so we better figure it out quickly.”

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