Blalock Granted Medical Hardship; Will Return for 2014 Season
June 12, 2013
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State All-American gymnast Kelsi Blalock was officially granted a medical hardship for the 2009-10 season by the Pac-12 Faculty Athletics Representative Committee and will be eligible to compete next season.
“We’ve been working on this for a while and it’s nice to have it official,” Blalock said. “I’m thankful that Tanya and Michael could give me this great opportunity to continue competing in gymnastics. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to contribute to next year’s success and to help lead this team back to the NCAA Championships.”
As a freshman during the 2010 season, Blalock injured her ankle during warm-ups at a dual meet at California, what would have been her fourth meet of the year. The injury forced her to miss the remainder of the season. At the time of her injury, she had “hit” all five of her routines through three meets.
Blalock met the criteria for a medical hardship given that she competed in less than 30% of the team’s regular season contests and she did not compete at any time during the second half of the season.
“We’re looking forward to having Kelsi return to the program for another year,” head coach Tanya Chaplin said. “She brings a lot of experience and a competitive spirit to the team. Next year’s team will be young and having Kelsi back in that mix will be important for the program.”
Blalock has earned All-Pac-12 honors on the vault in each of the last three years, with first team accolades in 2011 and 2013 and second team in 2012. In 2013, Blalock finished the season ranked fifth in the nation on the vault and was named a Regular Season All-American by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches.
The Puyallup, Wash. native has performed in 40 meets and has “hit”110 out of 119 routines in her career. Blalock has career-highs of 9.975 on the vault, 9.90 on the floor exercise, 9.875 on the balance beam and 9.850 on the uneven bars. Throughout most of her career at Oregon State, Blalock has been a regular in the vault, beam and floor lineups, however, she has performed in the all-around on five occasions and has a career-best of 39.425 which was set last season at the Metroplex Challenge. In 2011, Blalock performed in the all-around for the first time in her career scoring 39.300 to tie for third at the Pac-10 Championships.
The return of Blalock provides a boost of stability to a lineup that lost four seniors from 2013 including All-Americans Melanie Jones and Makayla Stambaugh as well as all-conference selections Hailey Gaspar and Stephanie McGregor who combined to account for 10 routines in the lineups.
