Not every student athlete majors in something they are passionate about. Not every student athlete can balance all aspects of their lives.

Senior gymnast Marisa Liptak can lay claim to both of those, as the elementary education major is nearing the end of her final season as a gymnast and needs to only student teach next semester to be done with college.

Head coach Sam Morreale has worked with Liptak her entire time on campus. He was the assistant coach her first two years and head coach last season and this year.

Through that time, Morreale has seen improvement in not only her skill development and performance, but also in her leadership style. These improvements led to Morreale naming her a captain for this season.

“This year more than any other year, she has stepped into that lead by example type of thing, too,” Morreale said. “She is somebody that will stand up in a meeting and call kids out for things they’re doing or not doing, or [say] how they can do things better. For a coach, that’s what you want to see–the growth you want to see in all of them.”

Liptak has had a few back-and-forth trips from exhibitionist to starter on beam and has started on floor every year after her freshman season.

In her freshman season, she competed on floor and beam sparingly and mostly as an exhibitionist. She compiled two qualifying scores on floor for an average of 9.450. In her sophomore season, she started on floor and beam virtually all season, averaging 9.665 and 9.483, respectively.

In her junior year, she was back to exhibition on beam and continued to start on floor, dropping a bit in terms of average on floor down to a 9.608.

This season, through seven meets, the senior has posted a beam average of 9.561 and a red-hot 9.750 average on floor, coming off of her career-high score of a 9.875 last week against Kent State.

Morreale believes that due to her hard work toward the end of last season and skill acquisition in the summer, Liptak proved herself able to handle the starting job for beam. Spots were opened up for her with the departure of three starters last season, but it was up to her performance to hold down the job.

“You don’t get a spot just because you’re a senior; you don’t get a spot just because you’re a scholarship kid,” Morreale said. “It’s about competing our best kids. She’s definitely taken that opening but has stepped into it.”

As for her performances on floor, especially this year, Morreale has nothing but rave reviews for the senior leader who is just .011 points behind leader Kim Gotlund for average score on floor.

“It’s huge for a coach, and she’s one of the reasons we have that confidence on floor,” Morreale said. “What she has it kind of exudes to the other kids and it just keeps expanding. She is really good at the skills she does. There is nothing that really challenges her. That’s what’s really good about this year: On both events she’s able to just perform. She’s not trying to figure out how to do things. We’re over the hump on the development and acquisition of skills now she’s just going out there and having fun with it. She’s going to go higher on floor, she’s gonna give [former NIU gymnast] Tanya [Rachan] a run for her money.”

Despite Liptak still having a lot to look forward to this season, her reflection on her time at NIU is not an easy task. The senior is hard pressed to determine one best memory or one huge takeaway from being a student and an athlete. While the answer does not come out immediately upon questioning, the realization trickles out through her explanations. She values the relationships she has built over time.

“I can’t even think of one thing,” Liptak said. “I’ve absolutely had the time of my life being here. I’ve been a part of this family and each year it grows because you have a new group that comes in and you get to keep in touch with everybody else.”

Liptak still takes the competition aspect seriously as she is still in pursuit of several goals this season, including upping the ante for goals already accomplished.

“I’ve got a couple goals,” Liptak said. “One obviously as a team is to reach regionals. Another was to break the 49 mark again on floor, not only did we break it but we came in the second best total in NIU history. Now I have a new goal of our team breaking that record. My main goal is for the team to reach regionals, but it would be a plus for me to reach regionals as an individual.”

As an elementary education major, Liptak has put in a lot of hard work and spent a lot of her time occupied with either being in the classroom all day, practicing and performing gymnastics, or both, as the two are inevitable parts of her schedule.

“It’s actually been extremely tough,” Liptak said. “Last semester was probably the toughest of my life. Just about every day I would have to come in and practice at five o’clock by myself. It’s tough, too, because when you have a rough day in here your teammates help you out. It’s just made me even stronger as a gymnast.”

Putting off her student teaching to finish her time as a gymnast, Liptak has no doubts as to whether her time has been well spent. Applying leadership in practice in the gymnasium, at meets or in the classroom, Liptak feels all of her experiences tie and blend together to make her a stronger individual in all aspects.

Tying back into the valuing of relationships, finishing out her time as a senior, a captain and a future teacher, Liptak revels in her teammates’ company.

“It’s really been a great experience,” Liptak said. “It’s definitely just been exciting, knowing that my teammates look up to me, knowing that my teammates if they’re having a rough day, will come up to me asking, ‘Hey, can you help me out?’ The fact that they trust me and look to me as that person that they can come to has been great. If I was to go back a couple years and look at all my choices again I would still come here because I’ve just had a fantastic experience.”