It has been a year that DU gymnastics senior Katie Andrews will not soon forget. It has been a whirlwind of a gymnastics season including her engagement on Thanksgiving, gaining a grad-assistant coaching position at Ball State for next season and helping the Pioneers advance to the NCAA Championships in her senior season.

“It has been good. I mean I am happy, but it is a lot of planning for a wedding on top of this season. This year has turned out to be a good year with getting to go to nationals now and getting married in June I am excited,” said Andrews.

The gymnastics career of Andrews began when she was 2 1/2 and she was climbing over all the furniture in her house. Her parents had finally had enough scares and decided to enroll her in a local gymnastics class.

“I was climbing all over the furniture and they wanted me to channel my energy into something somewhat productive and it just took off from there,” Andrews said.

Unlike other sports, gymnastics is not a high school sport and thus athletes join local club teams and spend countless hours in the gym after school and on the weekends competing and practicing. Andrews was no different and realized that she had a future in the crazy world of gymnastics.

“I don’t think I knew until probably middle school or early high school that gymnastics could potentially take me to college and everything else, but I knew that it was something my whole life I wanted to keep doing as long as I could.”

Andrews was not only recruited by DU, but also took visits to Iowa State, Penn State, Kentucky and Michigan State. The senior eventually choose Denver for the coaching staff, the team and the small school environment and she has not regretted her decision.

“It has been better than I could have ever imagined, I wouldn’t have ever wanted to go anywhere else, I am really happy.”

It has been a perfect fit for Andrews not only in the classroom, but also on the team. “With the school itself I think having the one-on-one attention of the professors and not having the huge classes is a huge plus. Being on the athletic team we just have a really good support team.”

Andrews’ college career has seen many changes. She started her freshman year with an all-around performance at the Super Six Challenge posted a 37.05. The rest of the season she primarily contributed on the uneven bars with an average score of 9.663, including a 9.775 in the 2004 regionals. Her sophomore year saw more change as she posted eight scores on the uneven bars, including a season-high 9.8 and four scores on the floor exercise, including a career-high 9.85 at Iowa State. Last season saw Andrews compete in all 13 meets, mostly on uneven bars and floor exercise and she won the first three titles of her career on bars. This season Andrews has competed in 10 of the 14 meets, all on floor exercises except for one meet where she scored on uneven bars. In the final meet of the season this year, Andrews tied her career high with a 9.85 on floor exercise at Air Force.

Andrews’ senior season all began back at Thanksgiving when her life took a big turn.

“It was on Thanksgiving and we were supposedly going to his grandparents and he needed to make a stop. We were in the elevator going up a couple floors and he pressed the fire alarm and I panicked and he told me to pick up the phone because the phone started ringing and inside the box there was my ring and when we got to the top both of our families were up at the top to celebrate. It was so exciting.”

Andrews will be married in June with most of the Pioneer gymnastic family attending.

Another change in the life of Katie Andrews is that she will be enrolled at Ball State University next fall with her fiancé where she will not only study sports psychology, but also help the gymnastic team.

“They have a sports psychology program which is what I want to do and once I decided that I definitely wanted to go there I just talked to the coach and she was more than thrilled, she is really excited for me to bring in some of my insight.”

Andrews will serve as a grad-assistant for a Ball State gymnastics program that went 4-12 this season.

“I think that it is going to be a good transition for me, so that I can still be involved with the sport. I just don’t have to beat up my body as much and it is definitely beaten down now.”

She could not have asked for a better senior season than a chance at the NCAA Championships this weekend.

“It is kind of a closing to a chapter and I am glad our class got our team there before we took off.”