After its third wake-up call this season, the Illinois men’s gymnastics team has switched plans.

The No. 6 Illini wrapped up the regular season with two losses — one being to a Big Ten competitor on senior night at Huff Hall. Illinois was edged by then-No. 8 California and then-No. 11 Nebraska. The new five-up, five-count format has been merciless to teams this season, causing uncharacteristic losses across the country.

“We’ve had losses and that speaks to how unforgiving this format is,” Illinois head coach Justin Spring said. “We were one routine away from beating Iowa, Nebraska and Cal. One routine. That’s all it takes.”

After an upset loss to the Cornhuskers, Spring was at his tipping point. The Illini took it upon themselves to have a team meeting without the coaching staff present to figure out how to solve the problem.

“I’m not going say it was a wake-up call because we have had three of those already, but let’s hope this is the last one,” senior Vince Smurro said. “I think making our own training plan really put us in the right mind-set. … ‘You are saying it in front of all of us, and now you are responsible for that. If I see you slacking, I have a right to say something because you made a commitment to us, not the coaches.’”

With the loss of senior and co-captain Jordan Valdez to injury in the middle of the season, Smurro was left alone to lead Illinois. He struggled with communication but has worked to improve as a captain the past two weeks.

“Instead of talking with people I took too much pressure on myself, which didn’t solve anything,” Smurro said. “Eventually, just talking with my teammates and getting their input and putting it together with the input I have been thinking about all season but not sharing with anyone really brought this plan together.”

Illinois will travel to Minneapolis hoping to clinch its fifth consecutive Big Ten Championship. Though the Illini have had an up-and-down regular season, they don’t feel pressure to defend their title heading into the competition.

“Everyone else has put the ring up on a pedestal,” sophomore Josh Wilson said. “Other people that will be competing at this meet except for us don’t have a ring. It’s not some treasure that’s unreachable — we have one. Some of the guys on the team have multiple. It’s a reality for us.”

Despite the title streak, the Illini enter the Big Ten Championships as underdogs. Seven teams will compete alongside Illinois: No. 1 Penn State, No. 3 Michigan, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Iowa and No. 10 Nebraska. With such an inconsistent season, many teams have counted out Illinois. The comments that have been circulating are motivation the Illini will use for their performance this weekend.

“There have been some comments made on Twitter posts and social media outlets and sports write-up’s after our losses to Cal, Iowa and Nebraska,” Spring said. “A lot of these teams have counted us out, but we are still a good team. I think this team is looking forward to surprising people. That’s a team that wants to win and hates to lose. They are looking at their losses, they are angry about it, and they aren’t going to lose again.”

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