University of Minnesota freshman gymnast Lacie Saltzmann earned post-season First Team All-America status by finishing fourth in the uneven bars at the NCAA semifinals on April 16. The effort on bars helped the 13th-seeded Golden Gophers come back from a nearly three-tenths-of-a-point deficit to UCLA to finish second and advance to the national championship meet for the first time in school history.
Saltzmann said that she knew that she had that routine in her.
“That’s the routine that I’ve done in the gym time and time again,” she said. “I feel like it just showed up in competition, but I feel like I wasn’t necessarily surprised when I did that routine. For it to show up in competition when we needed it most, that was just so gratifying.
“[But] I was absolutely floored when I saw two 10s pop up [from the judges].”
Saltzmann scored a career-best 9.965 out of 10 from the six judges. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the remaining four are averaged.
The comeback over UCLA was a surprise, particularly since the Bruins had outscored Minnesota four times this year – once in a head-to-head meet and three times during postseason quad meets. And the deficit, while not a large number generally speaking, is significant in gymnastics.
“I always kind of glance up to see where we’re at, but I feel like we all knew we were three-tenths behind UCLA, gunning for that number two spot, and they were going to vault, we were going to bars,” she said. “We’re like, ‘You know what? Let’s have the time of our life like this might be our last one as Team 52.’ We were just enjoying every single moment, but really just staying focused in our bubble and [doing] everything that we can do to help our team.”
However, UCLA’s second and third vaulters faltered, opening the door for Minnesota. Three solid routines from Minnesota set the stage for Saltzmann, who knew within seconds that she was in for a big routine.
“Really hitting those handstands was the moment when I knew I was going to hit my routine,” she said. “And then I have never been so certain I was gonna stick a dismount. [Assistant Coach] Sam [Scherwinski] told me ‘Put yourself in the gym. You’ve done this so many times.’ And I feel like that was what I did. I did the routine that I’ve done in the gym time and time again.”
With the off day between the semifinals and final meets, Saltzmann didn’t have time to reflect on the accomplishments of the night before.
“I had three exams when I came back – one on Tuesday and two on Wednesday, so I spent most of that day studying,” said Saltzmann, who is double-majoring in biomedical engineering and psychology. “Thankfully, I think all of them went well, so it was well worth it.”
The Gophers’ Cinderella run to the final meet fell short of the title; the team finished fourth behind the top three teams in the country. But their run to the final meet of the season included upsets over the 4th, 5th, 9th, and 12th-seeded teams.
“For us, the whole season, we talked a lot about being that team to beat. And I think as we got to postseason, whether it was in regionals or at NCAAs, I feel like we really embraced what it means to be the team that everyone’s chasing,” Saltzmann said. “We were embracing who we were as a team, and still just staying true to who we were and just going out and doing our normal.
“We may have been the 13th seed, but I feel like we’re just going to continue shooting for more, and hopefully that’s winning a national title and really just telling ourselves and believing it. That’s what we did this whole season.”