The talk of the 2017 NCAA gymnastics season centered on a group of talented freshmen: UCLA's Olympic medalists Madison Kocian and Kyla Ross, Utah's Olympic alternate MyKayla Skinner and Oklahoma's can't-miss phenom Maggie Nichols, who narrowly missed out on her Olympic dreams last summer.
However, at the national championships in St. Louis on Friday night, a comparatively unheralded junior proved that experience can be more important than hype and publicity.
Florida's Alex McMurtry had the meet of her life at Chaifetz Arena as she helped the Gators advance to Saturday's Super Six and won the fiercely contested all-around title. Notching a career-high 39.8125, she held off second-place Skinner (39.6125), sixth-place Ross (39.5750), seventh-place Kocian (39.5500) and 29th-place Nichols (39.1250).
Not bad for someone who has battled a severe back injury all season long and can only practice her floor routine once a week as a result.
The 20-year-old Virginia native was unsure at the start of the season if she would even be able to compete in the all-around, let alone take home the national title. During her first meet competing in every event -- an SEC showdown with Arkansas in February -- McMurtry struggled on two of her three tumbling passes, and her confidence was badly shaken. She remembers getting on the team bus after the meet and texting her friends that she thought she would likely not compete on floor again this year.
But in front of a packed and adoring crowd, McMurtry clinched her title on that very event. Closing out her meet on floor, she nailed all of her tumbling passes and earned a 9.9500. She said to win on that event felt like redemption.
"It's been an amazing ride. There have been some lows, but this is definitely the highest high," she said. I really thought to myself [earlier in the season], 'Maybe coming back on floor isn't happening this year.' So being able to do that, and have it end tonight on floor, made it come full circle for me."
Since her early-season difficulties, McMurtry has roared back. She earned a 10 on floor the very next week, after her discouraging meet at Arkansas, and ultimately won the all-around title at last month's SEC Championships, as well as being named the conference's Gymnast and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Her hard work and diligence have not gone unnoticed by her peers, and it seemed like most of her opponents couldn't have been happier for her.
"She's an amazing gymnast and had such a great meet," said Stanford gymnast Elizabeth Price, who competed as an individual on the uneven bars on Friday. "She hit all of her routines. She makes it look so effortless and just shows what gymnastics should be. She's the ideal college gymnast and really deserves this. She has so much fun out there and really supports her teammates."
Crediting her positive attitude and the unwavering confidence of her coaches for her resurgence, McMurtry tried not to focus on the all-around title on Friday, taking it one event at a time. She refused to let any moment of doubt enter her mind.
"Tonight, if you could have had a microphone on my brain and hear the thoughts going on in my head, [it was] nothing but confidence," she said. "The second I had a doubt, I would say to myself, 'You're the best ...' That [belief] took me so far. Those thoughts were never in my head freshman year, or sophomore year, or even earlier this season."
While McMurtry says she wasn't paying too much attention to the scores throughout the meet, she thought winning the night's biggest honor was a possibility after she stuck her vault on the Gators' first rotation. Without even looking at the scores, she knew right before starting her last pass on floor that just one tumbling pass stood between her and the top of the podium. She officially heard the news while being interviewed on ESPN following her routine but had assumed it as soon as her feet touched the ground.
Saying the journey and the struggles have made success all the more sweet, McMurtry admitted her victory really hadn't sunk in moments after receiving her trophy, and that she just wanted a moment to share with her parents and brother, who had made the trip to cheer her on. After that, she said she would head to the cold tub with the rest of her teammates to help her muscles recover, then refocus her attention to the team final.
She said she knows she won't have much of a voice left when she takes the competition floor on Saturday and isn't even sure how she'll ever be able to fall asleep with all the excitement, but she does know she will be enjoying every minute of it.
"This has been the best year of my life so far," she said. "I keep saying, 'I don't know why it took me three years to get here,' but I'm having a blast."