'A Fairytale Ending': NCAA Third-Place Finish Caps Off Ribeiro's Fantastic First Season

Ahead of his first season at the helm of Illinois men’s gymnastics, Daniel Ribeiro knew there would be question marks and doubts surrounding the program after he took over as the team’s interim head coach on June 28, 2022. But when he saw the Illini were predicted to finish last in the Big Ten preseason poll, that was all the motivation he needed to prove people wrong.

Ribeiro is unfamiliar with failure. He knows what it takes to win. A three-time Big Ten and two-time NCAA champion during his four-year college career at Illinois, Ribeiro guided his alma mater to a national championship in his first season as an assistant coach in 2012. After 11 years as both an assistant and associate head coach, Ribeiro was already fired up to take over a program he had been involved with for nearly half his life. A predicted fifth-place finish was just extra fuel to the fire.

Constructing a coaching staff that shared his competitiveness and vision for the program was the first step in Ribeiro’s quest for greatness. He first retained assistant coach Don Osborn, who spent three years as the Illini’s head coach from 1993-96 and had spent the last seven years as an assistant coach with the Orange and Blue.

On Aug. 5, Ribeiro found his other assistant, bringing aboard Tim McNeill, who brought winning experience as a five-time NCAA individual champion during his college career at Cal. McNeill also has three years of head-coaching experience after serving at the helm of his alma mater from 2010-13.

After Ribeiro was selected as the program’s permanent head coach on Dec. 12, the Illini began their new era with a dominant performance at the Windy City Invitational, taking home top honors over the likes of Big Ten powerhouse Michigan and Ohio State on Jan. 14.

The first-place trophy was the team’s first at the invite in four years, while Illini gymnasts claimed three event titles in the sensational season opener.

One week later, Illinois continued its perfect start to the year in its dual-meet win over Greenville, sweeping the event titles in the squad’s home opener. Though the Illini suffered their first loss of the year in a tri-meet with No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 8 Air Force, finishing in second place and less than one point behind the Sooners, they bounced back in their Big Ten opener against No. 6 Penn State on Feb. 4.

Illinois recorded a 408.800 in a resounding win over the Nittany Lions, a mark that set a new season-high at that point in the year. The team nearly broke the program record for vault team score during the meet, missing that mark by just 0.05 points, though Illini clinched four event titles en route to the commanding seven-point victory.

After finishing second at the Stanford Tri Meet and sitting at 9-3 ahead of Senior Night on March 12, the Illini closed their home slate with a splash, registering their largest conference margin of victory since 1989 in a 16.300-point win over No. 5 Nebraska. Finishing with an unblemished record at Huff Hall (3-0) for the first time in three years, Illinois ultimately entered postseason competition with a 2-2 conference mark and a 9-5 overall tally.

The Illini recorded a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships on March 31, though Illinois finished just three points behind champion No. 3 Michigan and less than 1.5 points behind both second-place Penn State and third-place Nebraska.

Illinois closed out the 2023 conference championships in dominant fashion in the individual portion of the competition, with Ashton Anaya (rings), Connor McCool (floor), and Ian Skirkey (pommel horse) each winning their respective event titles. The program’s three Big Ten titles were the most since 2017, while seven gymnasts earned all-conference first- or second-team status.

Looking to make noise on the biggest stage at nationals, the Illini advanced to the Super Six following qualifiers on April 14, marking the program’s seventh consecutive berth in the NCAA championship finals. Illinois recorded its highest team score of the year the following day, securing hardware with a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships, a performance that marked the first time Illinois ranked higher than Oklahoma in over a decade.

Anaya and Skirkey both won NCAA individual titles on their respective events, the first time Illinois has boasted two national champions since 2012. An NCAA-most nine different Illini were named All-Americans, the program’s highest number since 2014, capping off a remarkable debut season for Ribeiro and his coaching staff.

With a top-three finish under his belt, Ribeiro now enters his first full offseason as the program’s permanent head coach. He feels much more confident than he did one season ago, and the team's success has helped reshape individual and collective goals heading into the 2024 campaign.

“When you have these goals to be an All-American, if you don't achieve them, they just become your goals for the next year. When you achieve the goal, you're not gonna have the same goal next year. Now, it’s not a dream to be an All-American. They are All-Americans. They've established a deep-seeded belief in themselves. 

“That doesn't always happen. They could have done the same exact thing, had an off day, and it would have been a totally different mind shift in their brains. The fact that they were able to do what they did on that day, it already shifted everything going into this year: their belief in themselves, their belief in the team, and their belief in the program. We have very high expectations, and the team is working harder than they've ever worked before.”

Illinois returns several pieces of its 2023 roster, including Big Ten and NCAA champion Ashton Anaya, reigning College Gymnastics Association’s Specialist of the Year Connor McCool, and several other key members of the squad. Seven of the team’s nine All-Americans will suit up for the Orange and Blue again next season, and Ribeiro says his incoming freshman class is the top group in the nation.

Not only is the roster built for success, but Ribeiro now has reassurance that his philosophies work, giving the team an added boost as they continues their preparations for the second year of Ribeiro’s head-coaching career.

“My confidence is building, just coming off a really, really strong year in my first year. Even though I believed in what I was doing, achieving those results not only proved to them what they're capable of; it did the same thing for me,” Ribeiro said. “I think it proved to me that our system works, and it works exactly the way that we planned. Having gone through everything has given me confidence and experience. That was a really important year for me for growth, and I think I learned a ton in that time.”

Ribeiro has raised the bar heading into year two. While he proudly displays the team’s 2023 third-place hardware in his office, he’s ready to clear some room for a national championship trophy. The foundation and groundwork has been set, and the sky's the limit for the program in 2024 and for years to come.

“We have a winning culture on the men's gymnastics team. We stand for nothing less than achieving the absolute best,” Ribeiro said. “As long as we continue to maintain that culture of greatness, that culture of having a growth mindset, always being better, and having a strong work ethic, we’re going to always continue to be great.

“When you saw us on the floor last year, there was something special with our team, even the team that finished in third. People took note of Illinois, whether it was at Windy City, a dual meet, Big Tens, or NCAAs. There's something special that we're building here at Illinois.”