Only one thing can be expected of each athlete.

“I did the best I could,” said NIU’s only qualifier to the Central Regional gymnastics meet.

Vicki Thimgan wrapped up her career in every way, shape and form this weekend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

No more ‘last home meets,’ ‘last State of Illinois Classics’ or ‘last regular season meets.’

This was it.

The end.

Making the rounds with the University of Michigan, Thimgan scraped up a score of 37.425, not indicative of her potential.

“My best event (beam), I messed up, but I still got a really good score (9.225) for what I did,” Thimgan supported. “But it was really hard to adjust down there because I was all by myself. There were no fans.”

Huskie head coach Bobbie Cesarek was in full support and she noted that Thimgan might have been a bit unmotivated from the get-go.

“Beam, being that that is her most favorite event—the one that she has done the best on career-wise—I think it was really disappointing for her to fall on that particular event,” Cesarek explained.

“Originally, she was in a rotation (that went) bye-floor-bye-vault-bars-beam. I think, had that been the case, she would’ve been fine.”

But, instead, Thimgan traveled around the Assembly Center with the Wolverines in the following manner:

Starting with the fall on beam shortly after 5 p.m., Thimgan would lag around for nearly six hours before adding up her four tallies.

Her 9.75 on floor was her best while her 8.95 on vault was her worst. And the 9.50 she scored on bars not only ended her contribution to a long day of activity but her career as well.

“We didn’t get done ‘til around 11 o’clock at night, so we were all really tired,” Thimgan noted. “(The) Michigan (gymnasts) were a great help. They helped me with everything I needed.”

As well as taking care of themselves.

The U of M, Alabama (regional champ), Auburn and host Louisiana State all qualified for the 12th Annual NCAA Championships to be held at Oregon State University on April 15-17.

“That’s how strong our region is,” Cesarek acknowledged.

Back home, Thimgan now looks toward her future in gymnastics.

“Bobbie and I made a lot of observations while we were there,” Thimgan informed, “and we both have ideas to help the team because we saw a lot of changes that other teams had made that we hadn’t made.”

Thimgan’s role will be newer to her but she’s ready to fill in any gaps.

“Choreography is a really big part, and a couple of the girls have already asked me to help them,” she said. “They’ve never had me as a coach. Maybe, I could help out coaching and give them a different view since I’ve been to regionals three times and everybody else has only been there once if at all. I have kind of seen the upper level gymnastics … so, I might have an edge on them for tricks and style and things like that.

For sure, her experience and assistance is only available until December.

That’s when Thimgan and her best is gone for good.