Most of Terrapins gymnastics junior Emily Brauckmuller’s teammates grew accustomed to Big Ten competition last season — their first year in the new conference.
The Terps saw the new arenas and teams and navigated the conference’s postseason meets. But Brauckmuller missed out on that. After being a steady contributor as a freshman, she performed just one routine in her sophomore season.
At Saturday’s Big Five meet, Brackmuller competed in two of the Terps’ lineups, as she has all year. She took advantage of the moment, delivering a 9.75 vault and a career-high 9.85 floor routine in the best scoring meet of her career to this point.
“I was really excited to finally be onto postseason,” Brauckmuller said. “We only have a couple of meets left, and I want to get the most out of it.”
In her first year in College Park, Brauckmuller performed in 13 meets, mostly on floor, where she hit a season-best 9.80.
The next season, she made her debut in the third meet of the season. The Auburndale, Florida, native fell during her balance beam routine, though, and didn’t see competitive action for the rest of her sophomore campaign.
“She was having trouble making her skills last year,” coach Brett Nelligan said. “We tried to change her floor tumbling passes to accommodate, but she was having troubles with consistency.”
As a junior, Brauckmuller has solved those consistency problems. She’s had one fall this year, which came on floor at the second meet.
“When I came back to the gym [after that fall], I told myself that was never going to happen again,” Brauckmuller said. “So I took the 4-inch [mat] out of my routine and I’m never going back to that ever again, hopefully.”
Since then, the junior hasn’t scored worse than a 9.70 on floor. Nelligan noted that her floor scores have been steadily climbing, making the new career high just another step forward.
But the foundation for Brauckmuller’s resurgence this season was set before she elected to ditch the four-inch mat, Nelligan said. It started with her trying sophomore year.
“She rededicated herself and worked hard all summer to get herself back to an area where she’s consistent,” Nelligan said.
Brauckmuller agreed, crediting her sophomore campaign for giving her new perspectives.
“I didn’t want to leave college knowing ‘What if I did a little bit more?'” Brauckmuller said. “I changed my whole mindset and really focused on gymnastics and what I wanted to do with my career.”
Now, Brauckmuller relishes the chance to be a stalwart in lineups that her teammates count on. She said that psyche helps her perform under pressure—like the postseason stage of the Big Five Meet—as well.
“She’s been having an amazing season,” Epperson said. “All of us—her parents and coaches and teammates—are just nothing but proud of her.”
With the new mindset, Nelligan said Brauckmuller is “absorbing” everything coaches give her in practice and “putting numbers” up in weight room.
It’s paying off, but she’s not taking anything for granted.
“Coming back and being a dependable person my team can count on is something I hold dear to me,” Brauckmuller said.
“Because of what I went through, I cherish every routine I get to do.”
