The Illinois men's and women's gymnastics teams will get a chance to see where they are at as they officially open their seasons over winter break.

The men's team will travel to Chicago Jan. 10 for the prestigious Windy City Invitational while the women's team will travel to DeKalb for a meet with Northern Illinois on Jan. 11.

The No. 3 men's team return four All-Americans from last year, seniors Bob Rogers and Scott Wetterling, junior Peter Shostchuk and sophomore standout Justin Spring. They also return junior Ben Newman, the Big Ten pommel horse champion last year. Spring spent his summer playing for the United States team at the World University games.

"We've got high standards this year," Spring said. "We're off to a big head start; we believe we can take the Windy City Invitational. Our intersquad scores are comparable with all the best teams there."

Men's head coach Yoshi Hayasaki believes the season opener will help them determine how they compare with the other top teams in the country.

"The Windy City Invitational is a big competition to start the year," Hayasaki said. "Five of the top Big Ten teams are there. We hope to finish in the top three and see where we can go from there."

The most important goal for Hayasaki is that the team is ready when the Illini host the Big Ten championships at Huff Hall in March and the NCAA National Championships at Assembly Hall in April.

"We certainly feel we can contend for both titles," Hayasaki said. "We would like to get off to a good start, but more importantly we need to be ready for the Big Ten tournament and the National Championship."

The Illini women's gymnastics team has high expectations as well. The Illini return their co-captains and regional qualifiers from last year in senior Kara Kapernekas and junior Ashley Williams. They will be joined by three talented freshmen, including Cara Pomeroy, co-champ of the Mixed Pairs meet.

Kapernekas said that the team is the best they have been since she has been here.

"I'm really excited," Kapernekas said. "This year we have a lot of good freshmen and we are ahead of pace from last year."

Illini women's gymnastics coach Bob Starkell said that it is too early to talk about goals and expectations for the women's team and that the major concern right now is to figure out the lineups.

"We don't know what to expect for the first meet," Starkell said. "For right now, we need to be consistent and successful with whatever we're doing. We have a whole new group to work with and it's going to take a little time to figure everything out."

Starkell was very pleased with the performances from his young gymnasts who were competing for the first time in the Mixed Pairs meet, but he said there are still a few things that can be improved.

"As a team, we need to work on completing all our skills," Starkell said. "Early in a season you tend to have less amplitude and height, but the more and more we work at it, the more and more consistent and comfortable they'll get."