Quadruple Mak

At competition, she'll smile a glamorous smile and wave a Miss America wave, and the crowd will let her know how much they appreciate what she does for Oregon State University gymnastics. The Beaver fans have watched her for two seasons already. But this year, it's different for Leslie Mak.Now Mak is making an impact in every event of every competition. That's what all-arounders do. She has a job

many gymnasts are unable to handle, and she puts herself through routines most people will never experience. Physical and mental exhaustion follow her passion.


"There's a wear and tear on your body, and you have to learn how to manage that," head coach Tanya Chaplin said. "You have to truly manage yourself on those four events to keep your energy up so you're feeling at your best on Fridays, and yet still improving and being ready for that post-season so you're not so worn down.


"It's like playing every minute of a game. In our sport, if you're an all-arounder, you don't sub those people out."


The 2011 season may be her first year competing in all four events - vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise - but in three meets, Mak looks as if she has done all-around most of her career. She is tied for first in the country on beam, ranked 11th on bars and 13th in all-around. Still, she's growing all the time, especially on vault, where nagging injuries have held her back.


Before OSU, she broke an elbow while performing on vault, and the injury prevented her from gaining the experience necessary to compete at the collegiate level. Mak was simply not ready for vault when she arrived at OSU.


Her career was halted again during warm-ups against Ohio State last season. She injured another elbow and had to settle for her normal three events. But the summer following the 2010 season, she returned to the apparatus ready to train.


"It was just something she hadn't done in a long time," Chaplin said. "Last year was health. But it was learning the vault. She really put in the time over the summer - challenged herself, pushed herself out of her comfort zone."


Mak suffered a sprained ankle this past October. She could have quit the vault, but instead embraced the leadership role and kept going.


"It's really hard when you get injured," her teammate Olivia Vivian said. "As everyone knows, everyone gets their own little nicks. But to see her learn the vault and commit to it really shows she saw what the team needed, and despite a foot injury, she's attacking it anyway. You really need people like that on the team, and we're lucky to have her."


With the vault now part of her training and competition lineup, Mak is under more pressure. Adding another apparatus means spending time working on the skills.


"All-around takes a toll on your body, and there's no way you can do an extensive amount of numbers and have a good-feeling body for the weekend," Mak said. "And the coaches know that, and they respect how I'm kind of an old lady now, an upperclassman - injuries happen. It's about doing smart gymnastics."


Her training schedule is different than in the past. She used to rotate through bars, beam and floor exercise; while her teammates were working on vault, she improved her floor skills. Now, she makes room for all of it and has to train as if she were competing.


The coaches have to help her stay efficient, too.


"You focus on what needs to be done and remind her (Mak) that she knows what to do," Chaplin said. "We do a lot of quality and not quantity with her. So every time she gets up, it's like a competitive opportunity, and she gets up there and does the best she can."


Mak has made huge gains in the past year and is a vital member of the team. Sophomore Makayla Stambaugh was her only teammate to compete in all-around during the first weekend, and now Stambaugh is out because of injuries.


Through the first three competitions, Mak has led the way for the Beavers on beam. Last week against then-No. 15 Ohio State, she scored a 9.925, which propelled her to the top of the national rankings on Monday.


"This year its been my confidence level, I think," Mak said. "I think I also come from a really good background. My club team, Sport Seneca, from Canada, we focused a lot on beam."


She finished second on the apparatus to her former teammate, Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs of the University of California, Los Angeles, at the Pac-10 Showcase.


"It kind of shows a lot of how it was and how we really took pride in beam (at Sport Seneca)," Mak said.


The growing star has also helped push her teammates on floor and bars. In her first meet, she hit 9.800 on the bars and has since produced two consecutive 9.900 routines, both of which helped Vivian reach career-best marks and a No. 1 national ranking.


Mak can't think about the big picture too much, however. All of her success so far comes from her ability to stay focused on the task at hand.


"We talk all the time about living in the moment," Chaplin said. "Each event is its own entity. You don't necessarily think of it as all-around. You just think, 'I'm competing on this event at this time. This is what I need to do.' And then you go to the next one. Just like anything else, if you start thinking about everything over the long haul, it can get overwhelming."


She is humble and admits she has plenty of work to do, but she trains and competes as her coaches and teammates say she does - cool, calm, collected and focused. In a season where the No. 6 Beavers are trying to win a national championship, Mak's personality and leadership will help turn their dream into a reality.




Anthony Casson, sports writer
sports@dailybarometer.com