Last year, then-junior Phil Goldberg approached the Windy City Invitational with his stomach full of butterflies. After losing a season to injury, it was Goldberg's first men's gymnastics competition since the NCAA Championships his freshman year.

Tomorrow, Goldberg will walk into the Illinois-Chicago P. E. Building as a senior, as an All-America selection and as a Michigan co-captain. And he’s determined to help the Wolverines improve on last year’s third-place finish.

“Nothing is going to make me feel satisfied other than first place,” Goldberg said. “If we get second place, there’s going to be a bitter taste left in my mouth.”

The Windy City Invitational is known as a Big Ten preview. Though the meet featured a powerhouse Stanford team last year, just the usual suspects will attend tomorrow.

No. 12 Illinois-Chicago is hosting, and every Big Ten team — No. 3 Ohio State, No. 3 Illinois, No. 6 Michigan, No. 8 Minnesota and No. 9 Iowa — except for No. 5 Penn State is participating.

“We should never, ever lose to Iowa,” Goldberg said. “We should never, ever lose to Minnesota. ... I think it’s Illinois and Ohio State that are the two tougher opponents at Windy City.”

Both the Buckeyes and Fighting Illini lost longtime stars to graduation last year, Ohio State’s four-time All-American Jimmy Wickham and 2007 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year Wes Haagensen from Illinois. Ohio State has a talented freshman class including standouts Philip Onorato and Alexy Bilozertchev, but the Buckeyes won’t easily replace the lost experience quickly.

The Wolverines don’t have that problem. But they will have to compete without senior stalwarts Kent Caldwell and Joe Catrambone, both of whom have been injured for most of the school year.

Because Michigan has had ample time to prepare for meets without Caldwell and Catrambone, its main challenge is hitting routines consistently. The team held intrasquads on all six events during practice on Monday and Tuesday. Hit percentage improved significantly as the Wolverines moved to vault, parallel bars and high bar.

The Wolverines start the meet on high bar and finish on parallel bars, a team strength. Goldberg said he believes a good start on high bar is crucial to a successful meet. Last season, a rough high bar rotation derailed Michigan’s hopes for a Big Ten Championship.

“It’s hard to recover once you start the meet with falls,” Goldberg said.

With all the intrasquads and goal-setting they’ve done, the Wolverines couldn’t have prepared any more for this meet.

"Going to Windy City, the attitude is always to win it," Goldberg said. "That’s our goal. Anything less is unacceptable.”