When Norfolk State had obliterated the hopes and dreams of Missouri basketball fans, when thoughts had turned sartorial with the unveiling of the Tigers’ new uniforms and when anticipation of the beginning of college football began to seem palpable, Rachel Updike was still competing.

The freshman gymnast extended a season in which she won Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, set the conference record for most weekly awards in a season and dominated the vault and floor week in and week out all the way to the NCAA National Championships in Duluth, Ga.

While there, she earned first-team All-American honors on the floor exercise. She is only the fifth Tiger to garner the award and the fourth to make the All-American First Team.

And while Updike’s run ended with an uncharacteristic 8.425 in the floor exercise final April 22, she and coach Rob Drass still look back on her season fondly.

**Instant success**

When Updike arrived in Columbia, Drass knew he had quite the talent on his hands, notwithstanding her durability or consistency, qualities that are normally nebulous with freshmen.

Updike said she expected the fact that she was a freshman to define her role, and that she would spend the season looking up to the seniors and other leaders.

What neither expected, though, was Updike’s ability to throw down score after score — all high enough to compete with any gymnast in any meet — and then develop into a premier all-around athlete at the end of the season.

“We were really excited to see how she blossomed this year,” Drass said.

Updike is probably the one most surprised to see how far she had went.

“(Reaching the championship and getting All-American) was like what I wanted to do, but I didn’t think it would actually happen,” she said. “Honestly, I didn’t even know what an All-American was.”

Updike established herself as force in the Big 12 early in the season and never wavered. She won Big 12 Newcomer of the Week enough (nine times) to warrant naming the award after her, and threw down killer routines to help the Tigers topple higher-ranked opponents like Nebraska and Arkansas.

**A championship experience**

The Big 12 Championship meet brought even more progress for Updike. Though she had tinkered with a bars routine earlier in the season, the meet in Norman, Okla., was the first one where her all-around routine really came around and showed she could stand with senior Mary Burke.

That discipline ended up being what punched Updike’s ticket to the National Championships. While the team fell short in the NCAA Regional, Updike advanced with a 39.350, yet another accomplishment she didn’t see coming, literally in this case.

“At regionals, I didn’t even know that I made it (to nationals) until my teammates and coaches told me,” she said.

Although Updike said developing an all-around routine was something she and the coaches were working toward, the fact that she was one doing it at the national championships was a surprise to the coaches.

“We really felt like if only one athlete was going to get (to the national meet) it would end up being Mary,” Drass said. “I think as we saw the Big 12 championships and the results … we started to realize that we had a really, really good 1-2 punch in the all-around … that one or both of them could be at the national championships as an all-around.”

As for the cause of the sloppiness of her final routine, Drass said it was simply Updike over-reaching and coming up empty.

“Either you come home with a national championship or you’re still an All-American,” Drass said. “We kind of let it hang out, and I think Rachel felt as if she needed to be perfect to do that … she just got a little overexcited and once her first pass went a little long…some disappointment set in.”

Updike gave an even simpler assessment and said she just “laughed it off.”

“It obviously wasn’t how I wanted (the meet) to end, but I’m glad I made it as far as I did,” she said.

Drass said nothing but good came out of Updike’s experience down in Duluth and served to motivate her even more.

“She left with a sour taste in her mouth because that was not the routine she knows how to do,” he said. “I think that’s a good place because she’s motivated for next year now.”

Updike won’t be the only one motivated. She and Drass both said one lesson they took away from the championship meet was that the Tigers could stack up with any team there and that Updike’s presence and exposure can be something that carries over to the whole team.

“We’ve already talked about it, and I think right away, we’re just going to go in and work our butts off to get to the national (meet),” she said.

As well as expanding on her stellar performance, Updike will step into a stronger leadership role next year and try to fill the shoes of the departing Burke-Allie Heizelman duo.

“It excites me that Rachel’s going to be more on our page to help lead the team to nationals … where as a freshman she was just absorbing everything that was coming in,” Drass said.

The fact that Updike still has three years left bodes extremely well for the Tigers. She has shown that she can anchor the team with her consistency and raise its profile with her postseason presence.