Gymnastics, like many other sports, is dependent on repetition, familiarity and consistency, and no one knows this more than junior gymnast Kim Gotlund.

Gotlund, was the lone all-arounder last season and is now just one of two gymnasts this year. The juniors responsibilities increased this season as she has four routines on every meet that she must replicate from her practice regimen. She must do so consistently to remain in the starting line-up.

Head coach Sam Morreale believes Gotlund’s work ethic is the main reason for her success.

“She’s a talented kid, who, on top of that, understands the concept of working to get better,” Morreale said. “She had a great off-season summer wise of training on her own. She came back basically where she left off last year, which propels her to be as consistent this year as she was last year. This isn’t a sport where you can take summers off.”

Her work over the summer was not just conditioning or practice, as the junior was having her routines on bar changed up, leading to training for a new routine instead of just practicing a familiar one.

“Lots of times we’re just working on upkeeping our skills in the summer,” Gotlund said. “But this [new routine] really made me motivated to get a new skill and at times it was difficult because it was a new thing, but it was fun to work on new stuff and the challenge.”

The new skills and the off-season training have paid dividends for Gotlund statistically, as the junior improved her scores on average in bars, beam and vault, which increased her overall score average. On floor she is .034 lower than last season’s average, but at this point in the year she still has at least one competition remaining.

Her bar has gone from 9.281 to 9.573, her beam from 9.463 to 9.592, and her vault from 9.596 to 9.667.

Morreale also credits Gotlund with being a strong leader for the team, if not always on the vocal side, definitely in her presence in practices.

“I try to come in every day with a good attitude and work hard to show my team what to do,” Gotlund said. “I’m more quiet and let my gymnastics speak for itself. I just feel like I have high expectations for myself and try and get better. I set new goals for each meet.”

Gotlund’s consistency last season earned her a spot in the regional competition as an all-arounder, and this season she is sitting in fifth. The top five end up going to the competition.

With one last meet left, Gotlund has an opportunity to qualify. She believes the experience from last season will help her if she does end up at regionals.

“I feel like it’s good because I know exactly what to expect pretty much,” Gotlund said. “It will be a different place so I’m not really familiar with that but I think I’ll have more confidence than last year.”

Despite the talent and the hard work Gotlund has put in to getting better at her craft, Morreale believes there is a bigger contributing factor that may often go overlooked in sports.

“I’ve known her for four years; she was one of my first recruits coming in,” Morreale said. “She has just gotten a lot better on that side of it. She has also been very receptive in changes to what we do in order to make her better. Just from that standpoint, for lack of a better word she’s a very coachable athlete. A lot of these kids come in with a certain talent level, so that last little bit is the hardest to work for.”