The reign has ended.

Heading into the Big Ten Championships this weekend, the Illinois men’s gymnastics team had won four consecutive Big Ten Titles. The Illini’s streak was ended, however, as they placed fifth in the competition. Illinois started on the pommel horse — usually one of its strongest events — and made detrimental mistakes. The momentum was difficult to create after a rough start.

“Pommel horse is one of our best events,” Illinois head coach Justin Spring said. “We were hoping to get a four- or five-point swing on some of the other teams and we ended up posting some of the lowest scores. That’s certainly troubling for the guys to keep the mindset of ‘We are in it to win it.’”

The rest of the night resembled the season the Illini have had. Illinois earned a season-low on the pommel horse, scoring a 66.55, but earned a season-high on the vault with a 73.60.

“We had some extreme highs and lows,” Spring said. “It was once again the inconsistency that killed us. We had some outstanding performances on what we thought were our weaker events, but high bar was the event that really knocked the wind out of us. … We went one for five on high bar and you can’t win a Big Ten Championship with mistakes like that.”

Though the team performance was inconsistent, there were a few standout performances from Illini gymnasts. The story of the night belonged to Illinois freshman Fred Hartville. He finished in first place after the team competition, earning a spot in the event finals on Saturday. With another stuck landing, Hartville secured his first place and Illinois’ only Big Ten Title of 2013, scoring a 15.425. The freshman surpassed 2012 Olympian Sam Mikulak’s vault performance, ending the night at the top of the podium.

“The guys kind of helped me through this because I saw them go out there and kill it,” Hartville said. “I went to vault calm and collected and just said ‘don’t try too hard for something, let it happen,’ and tonight it happened.”

Mike Wilner finished the team competition in first place on the still rings, earning a spot in event finals where he was just shy of earning his first individual Big Ten Title. Wilner (15.45) was surpassed by Iowa’s Javier Balboa (15.50), placing him second on the podium.

“Mike left the door open a little bit with one giant swing to handstand,” Spring said. “The handstand was not great, so he left the door open, and in a finals championship that is going to cost you. … With six judges in finals, those little things can cost you big, especially when the rest of his routine is so good.”

Illinois will have a little over a week to prepare for the NCAA Championships. Spring said the team needs to build more belief in itself before heading into such a big competition. 

“Physically we have done it,” he said. “A week ago we had an amazing inter-squad (meet) and we ran an inter-squad in February and killed it. We need to start believing that we can. Belief and self-confidence is really all these guys need at this point. Physically they are prepared, but to hit that routine on command, you need that belief to know that you already can hit it.”

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