A rivalry is about to be revived.
When legendary coach Newt Loken first re-established the men’s gymnastics program at Michigan, the team’s biggest foe was powerhouse Illinois. For years — 11 in a row from 1950-60, to be exact — the Wolverines watched as the Fighting Illini grabbed the Big Ten title they wanted so badly.
In recent seasons, the Illini have taken a backseat to bigger-name opponents like Oklahoma and Ohio State. But now, No. 5 Michigan and No. 4 Illinois are the top two teams in the Big Ten. And it’s Senior Night.
Outside of the postseason competitions, there are few meets the Wolverines want to win more than this Saturday’s.
The Illini have just two Big Ten losses so far this season, and both of them came courtesy of the Wolverines. In Michigan’s last meet, the Feb. 21 Pacific Coast Classic, it beat Illinois by nearly five points.
“That gives us a pretty good edge of confidence going into the meet,” said sophomore Ben Baldus-Strauss, who will compete on the floor, pommel horse, vault and high bar. “(But the Illini) have so much raw talent. We definitely can’t go in there thinking that we’re better than them. We just have to prove it.”
For Michigan, it will be the first challenging dual meet with another Big Ten team since a narrow loss to Penn State on Jan. 24. The competition will be the last at Cliff Keen Arena for most of Michigan’s seniors. All seven of the healthy seniors are in the starting lineup.
“They’ve been the leaders since I got here,” Baldus-Strauss said. “It’s going to be sad, because we’re going to lose so many of them. We definitely want to come out with a victory for their last meet at Keen and send them off in style.”
The Illini won’t make it easy, and neither will injuries. While Michigan just lost freshman Syque Caesar — who has been a major contributor all year — to a torn meniscus, Illinois just regained the services of star sophomore Paul Ruggeri, who is coming back from the same injury.
The duo of Ruggeri and fellow sophomore Daniel Ribeiro can add full points to Illinois’ team total, not just tenths. When he hits, Ribeiro almost singlehandedly carries the pommel horse squad.
And last weekend, the Illini put up their biggest score of the season at home on their Senior Night. It remains to be seen if they’ll get the same big numbers in Ann Arbor, but the Wolverines still aren’t taking them lightly.
“They can come from not hitting too many meets all season to just nailing their sets by the end of the season,” Baldus-Strauss said. “They really have that worked out very well. You can never count them out.”
And with Caesar out of the lineup, Michigan’s hit percentage will be that much more important. During their off weeks, the Wolverines focused on improving their pommel horse routines after they had to count two falls on the event at the Pacific Coast Classic on Feb. 21.
On Wednesday, the Wolverines held a 12-man pommel horse intrasquad, with seniors Ralph Rosso and Ryan McCarthy leading teams of six. The winning team wasn’t the one with the best score but the most hits.
The gymnasts also emphasized perfection work, trying to minimize all possible deductions in their routines. They don’t want a repeat of last year’s meet in Champaign, where despite a decent showing, the Wolverines fell just short of a win.
“It wasn’t like we had the worst meet there, and we didn’t do extremely well,” Baldus-Strauss said. “We just couldn’t keep up with the scoring. Hopefully this year we’ll be a little more even. And on our home turf, hopefully that’ll help things out. We’ll have everyone behind us.”