History was made.

The Illinois men’s gymnastics competed with a head-to-head format for the first time on Friday night. Illinois head coach Justin Spring proposed the new format last April to the NCAA, which would drastically change the face of men’s college gymnastics after 100 years.

“This is (assistant coach) Daniel Ribeiro’s and my idea of how to revolutionize men’s gymnastics for the better, making it a more fan friendly, understandable format,” Spring said. “We made it into more of a team competition by eliminating the individual scores on each individual apparatus and making it more about beating your opponent.”

As the fans entered Huff Hall, they were given an orange mini-flag to signal when they thought Illinois should win the matchup. The atmosphere of the crowd was more united than it has ever been, cheering for each individual Illini’s routine.

“Toward the beginning of the meet, there was excitement,” senior Vince Smurro said. “When he announced, ‘Point Illinois,’ the crowd erupted. I could see if it was a real competition in that format and that is how the rest of the meets for the season are. I could see everyone being excited and winning a point would become a huge deal. I think the crowd realized that and they did a great job.”

After three rotations, the Illini had a large lead but were heading into their hardest event — the vault. Struggling on the vault all season, Illinois swept the event, winning all five matchups. The Illini took the top-three event titles, with freshman Fred Hartville earning the crown.

“That was the ‘wow’ moment for my guys and me,” Spring said. “The way they stepped up on vault, landing dismounts. Penn State, I was just happy we had five vaults on our feet. (Friday), we put all five vaults on our feet and the landings were much tighter and much cleaner. We really put the pressure on Minnesota.”

One of the biggest differences with the new match-play format is there are no set lineups. Five gymnasts are chosen to compete on the event, but no specific order is required. The coaches use strategy to put up their best-matched gymnasts.

“For me personally, I liked to get mentally prepared,” Smurro said. “If I know I’m going fourth in lineup, for the first two people I have my pants on and my jacket on, staying warm. The third person, I’ll take my pants off and start warming up my legs and then I’m ready to go. Here, you have to really stay mentally focused throughout the entire rotation, which is difficult because you aren’t use to it.”

Illinois sealed the win on the last parallel bars routine, finishing with a 16-9 score. After victory was announced, the men still competed on high bar for the team score and national rankings. The crowd died down during the high bar performances and the energy fizzled out, but Illinois needed to show a strong performance.

“We knew our score was going to be important for the rankings, and because high bar is our weakest event, it was absolutely crucial that we did everything we could to get a high score,” senior Yoshi Mori said. “It was good because we were able to use it more like a practice meet.”

Though the trial meet ran successfully, there are a lot of apparent kinks that need to be worked out. 

Spring said he plans to take necessary steps to push the head-to-head format forward, with the goal of creating a larger fan base for men’s gymnastics.

“Changing a sports system is not something that can be done overnight,” Spring said. “There is a lot of reworking and analyzing that needs to be done still. We will spend months doing it, but I look forward to it.

“This is a step in the right direction.”

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