Feb. 4, 2016
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Briannah Tsang stands in front of a crowd of more than 1,500 people in Rec Hall. She stares at the vault table 25 meters away, envisioning the perfect routine.
"Usually I think to breathe and try to make my vault as normal as possible," Tsang said. "I don't want to put too much energy into it and make myself go flying."
Tsang takes off running down the runway. She runs as fast as she can in order to have as much momentum as possible to perform her vault. As Tsang approaches the vault table, she does a round off onto the springboard lifting her up to the table. Using the momentum she built up, she must powerfully push off of the table to propel herself into the air. She must flip and twist in the air while trying to keep a perfectly tight form with her toes pointed. In order to get a high score, Tsang must then "stick" her landing.
"Once I stick my landing, it's the greatest feeling ever. I can't even describe it. It's not the same as sticking any of the other events," Tsang said. "Sticking vault is just different for me because I'm not as consistent sticking the landing."
Despite what Tsang might say, the vault has been her most consistent event of the 2016 season. In the team's first three home meets, the Canada native has taken home all three of the vault titles with a 9.825 and two 9.850s. In 2014, she claimed the vault title at the Canadian National Championships and won the 2011 Canada Winter Games vault crown.
"Her senior year in high school she was the elite national champion on vault in Canada. So that would be like being the McKayla Maroney of Canada at the time," Penn State head coach Jeff Thompson said. "To see that she's ranked that highly on vault isn't surprising, it's expected."
The vault was not always Tsang's favorite apparatus. When Tsang was a little girl, she had no gymnastics influence in her life. Her mom worked at a hospital, and Tsang knew that one day she would follow in her mom's footsteps. However, an event that most four-year-olds would consider a fun party ended up changing Tsang's life.
"I went to a gymnastics birthday party at a local gym and I just loved it," Tsang said. "I learned that I loved tumbling and that started my love for not just gymnastics, but for floor."
The floor exercise is where Tsang first started tumbling and experimenting with different routines. But, as she advanced as a gymnast, Tsang started to become more interested in other events.
"I just got better and better at vault," Tsang said. "It just started to become more fun than what I was doing on floor."
Although it is no longer her favorite event, Tsang is coming off of tying her career-best score with the Nittany Lions with a 9.925 last weekend against Illinois.
"One of the unique things is when we train on floor exercise, she uses landing mats on the floor in practice like you see some of the girls do in competition," Thompson said. "But when she gets to the competition, she doesn't want the mats. From an optical standpoint, some may wonder why she needs the mat thinking she's not ready or prepared. So, she won't use the mat in competition."
Tsang has performed in front of huge crowds in many different countries. She remembers a meet that she competed in in Germany that had the biggest crowd she had ever performed in front of and also tried out to be on the Canadian Olympic team in 2012.
"When it comes to nerves, the size of the crowd does not affect me," Tsang said. "The amount of nerves I have comes from my confidence in my gymnastics."
Those nerves are something that is rarely a factor for the sophomore. She has been a gymnast that Coach Thompson and his team have been able to rely on in any situation. She was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last year and Coach Thompson thinks there is more to come.
"She's a great student, she's a great ambassador for Penn State, for the gymnastics program and one of the top athletes I've ever coached in the last 30 years," Thompson said. "She's just phenomenal. We are lucky to have her."
Penn State will travel to East Lansing to take on Michigan State at 2 p.m. on Saturday.