Women's Gymnastics

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July 20, 2009

By Lauren Benson, Illinois Sports Information

Most athletes come into their freshman season with unrealistic hopes of starting right away, becoming a top contributor for the team, and turning into a superstar like many of them were for their high school teams.

Gymnast Sarah Schmidt had different aspirations for her career at Illinois when she came in as a freshman. She strived to simply compete in a meet.

"The beginning of my freshman year we had to fill out a goal sheet and list out the goals we wanted to reach while we were here," Schmidt said. "Mine was that I wanted to compete in at least two events in one meet, just one time. I didn't even think that I had a chance of competing."

Schmidt was not a star recruit out of high school. The two other teams recruiting her were fellow Big Ten Conference schools Minnesota and Iowa. When Illinois expressed interest in her, Schmidt was weary at first.

"Honestly, I didn't think there was anything exciting about going to Illinois," Schmidt said. "Then I finally came on my visit here, and I realized that I just had to go here. The girls were just amazing and so close. The coaches were so positive about everything. I wasn't very good in high school, but the coaches saw potential in me."

Head Coach Bob Starkell and Associate Head Coach Kim Landrus both agreed they saw something special in Schmidt while they were recruiting her. Although Schmidt was not a top gymnast during her high school career, they felt that she was bound for greatness in college gymnastics.

"She wasn't really recruited that hard by other schools," Starkell said. "She didn't compete well. But when we watched the way she worked out and how well she communicated with her coach, we just saw something in her and felt that she could possibly be a great college gymnast."

Landrus agreed: "You just looked at her and you didn't know what it was, but there was just something about her that made us realize that we wanted her because she was going to be good. She hasn't let us down yet."

Schmidt has gone above and beyond her coaches -- and her own -- expectations. During her freshman season, she ended up participating in every meet and competed in the all-around in four of the final five meets of the season. Last season, during her junior year, Schmidt really broke out on the college gymnastics scene, becoming the Big Ten champion on floor exercise and being named second team All-America on floor.

Each year Schmidt has continued to improve, and she credits the improvements to the program here at Illinois.

"I came from a gym where it was just me and my coach," Schmidt said. "It wasn't very strict. Then I came here and had the girls here to push me. The coaches keep us on a strict schedule. It's really just been the whole experience that has made me better every year."

The team has also improved drastically during the last three years that Schmidt has been here. This season marked the first time in the history of the program that the Illini have made the NCAA Championships. The team's overall mentality has also received a dramatic shift. While the team was once content with simply finishing in the top half of the Big Ten, the girls now expect to be a top contender for the Big Ten crown and to make Nationals.

"When I first got here, we were still pushing just to make it to regionals," Schmidt said. "Nationals was always a goal, but we didn't know until the past two years that we could actually have a chance of doing it. When last year started, we just knew it was going to finally be our year to make it to the NCAA Championships."

Schmidt credits the team's change of mindset to the success they have reached in the past few seasons. The girls also now have a positive mindset when they go to each meet, which has aided them in becoming a more solid team that is capable of being a top program in the nation.

This season, the Illini don't want to simply make it to Nationals. Their mindset has changed once again. They believe the experience they gained in last season's trip to Nationals will propel them to greater success in this season's top meet.

"We will know what to expect now," Schmidt said. "Last year we went there and didn't do well. Our nerves got the best of us. Now we know what to expect when we get there and what we need to do to get there again. Hopefully we will repeat everything this season, but just take the next step up."

Now that Schmidt is approaching her senior season, she hopes to continue to build on the excellence she has achieved in the past three seasons. Her goals have definitely changed from the ones she listed as a freshman when Schmidt was just hoping to make an appearance in a meet.

Now, she is among the country's elite gymnasts and someone the Illini count on in every meet.