Lindsay Mable has been busy as ever this season.
The Aurora, Colo., native earned the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year award for the second time in her career and was named Big Ten gymnast of the week six times over the course of the season.
“She’s kind of exceeded her expectations but ours as well,” head coach Jenny Hansen said. “We really didn’t know what to expect when she came into the program, and she has broken so many records, it’s been hard to keep track of, to be honest.”
Mable will compete for the No. 16 Gophers one last time this weekend when the team competes in the NCAA Championships on April 15 and 16 in Fort Worth, Texas.
“I don’t think it will totally hit me until it’s done,” Mable said. “I know it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster. I think it’s just [hard] to push all those feelings aside and approach it like any other meet. [That’s] going to be the biggest key for me and the other seniors as well, just to make it count.”
The senior was named a First Team All-American as a freshman in 2012. At the time, her career was just getting started.
She became the Big Ten all-around champion with a Minnesota-record score of 39.650 during her sophomore season and won her first Big Ten Gymnast of the Year award as a junior.
She was the only Minnesota gymnast to qualify for the NCAA Championships last year and competed in the all-around. She finished ninth in the event and also was in a five-way tie for 11th on the floor exercise.
This year, the Gophers are going as a team for the first time since 2013, after finishing second at the NCAA Regional at the Sports Pavilion.
Mable won Minnesota’s only event title of the meet, placing first in the uneven bars with a score of 9.875.
“[The team] really [picks] each other up. That was evident at the regional championships,” Hansen said. “When Lindsay had a fall, the team rallied. They said, ‘We’re going.’ They picked it up, and they all made the effort.”
The Gophers will lean on Mable’s experience in the NCAAs, as the team enters as the second-lowest ranked team in the meet. Only No. 19 Stanford is ranked lower.
“She’ll be huge,” Hansen said. “She’s been there every single year, so that experience really does help as we head into the championships.”
With her Minnesota career set to close, Mable said she has one last goal for the team as it heads into the final meet of the season.
“The biggest thing is just to be calm and relaxed as a team as we’ve been all season,” Mable said. “If we just approach it the same way we have every other meet, we’ll get the result we’re looking for, which is to finish better than any other Minnesota program has before.”
