UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A week after bruising her leg from falling off beam while completing her routine, Mason Hosek was a little nervous before competing on beam last Saturday.
Hosek worked with Penn State assistant athletic trainer Sarah Thompson-Murray throughout the week, in-between meets, to recover from the fall and the work the two put in paid off at No. 25 Penn State's double dual meet vs. No. 22 Minnesota at Rec Hall.
Once Hosek got on beam, her nerves faded and she earned a 9.875 for her routine.
"I knew that I was fine," Hosek said. "It was kind of a fluke last week and I think now doing this beam routine I won't worry again but it was really humbling to have that fall and then come back."
Following her beam routine, Hosek competed on floor in the exhibition spot for Penn State, earning a 9.825. Hosek, a senior, has competed for Penn State for the last four years and after each home meet the Ann Carr award is awarded to a Penn State athlete who had the most inspirational performance.
Hosek has watched a number of her teammates receive the award through the years but she earned the award for the first time last weekend and Carr was in attendance to present it to her.
"It was really honoring," Hosek said. "I felt so much better being here and pushing through it and making a great beam routine here today and the floor routine after so that's really great that someone else saw and thought I deserved the award today."
While Hosek and Penn State came up short versus Minnesota, the team hit 27 routines in a row to help tally its highest score of the season at 196.775. Penn State's performance was one of its best meets in the past four years, according to Hosek.
Penn State head coach Sarah Brown has talked about wanting the team to reach a score above 196 throughout the season and being able to carry momentum from one event to the next. The team was able to surpass that mark for the first time this season against Minnesota.
"Finishing a meet is not always something we did in the past and so for us to finish the meet, it shows not only how confident this team is but how great their future is," Brown said.
With both Penn State gymnastics teams competing at the same time, the energy in Rec Hall was electric. While Hosek and Penn State fed off that energy, they also created some of their own.
"We had talked about little things like the music and the energy we could create between each other and after each routine what cheers we could do and all of those culminated tonight from the fans to the energy from the athletes," said Brown.
While some schools around the country have stopped doing double dual meets, Penn State has continued with them. Hosek and her teammates workout with the men's gymnastics team so the meet gave both teams the opportunity to cheer each other on.
"I think it's really great to have both of us supporting each other in the same building but the crowd is wonderful, everybody is so loud for everybody's routines and it's a really great atmosphere and I'm so glad we have a school that does something like this," Hosek said.
Penn State reached its highest overall score of the season versus Minnesota but this is only the beginning for Hosek and Penn State.
"I think moving forward we'll have this under our belt to know that we can do it every time," said Hosek.
