Stephanie Lebster felt different entering her senior year at Michigan State.
The gymnast from Holland had a different floor exercise routine that led to a different opportunity, putting the West Ottawa graduate in the Spartans lineup as a regular for the first time in her career.
“It is really rewarding after being here for three years. The first time I went out there in the lineup, I had never had so much fun in my life,” Lebster said. “I didn’t want the routine to end, I was having so much fun. That feeling is not something I have had and it is addicting. I just want more of it and I am excited for more of it.”
Lebster is one of the top MSU gymnasts in the floor exercise. She has added a new pass to the routine that has helped her reach another level.
“Last year I got a little bit of a taste for competing, but something wasn’t really clicking with the passes I was doing. So this summer, we really dug deep and I have an entirely new pass routine that I have never trained in my 17 years of gymnastics – and it worked,” Lebster said. “That was a huge thing for me. I couldn’t get the landing last year, so that was a huge goal to get a pass that I could do cleanly and have confidence with.”
Building the pass from the ground up has allowed her to feel all of the intricacies of each movement.
“It’s called a Rudy layout step-out,” she said. “It starts with a front handspring then a 1 1/2 twisting layout. Out of that I punch and do a back layout with my legs split, which looks more like something you would see on the beam. I feel like I am floating when I do it.”
Floating with a 1980s rock-n-roll background. She scored a 9.825 in her first meet of the season on Jan. 16, then crushed a 9.875 – her career best – in front of nearly 10,000 at the Breslin Center on Sunday, Jan. 25, in a national showdown with UCLA. She went head-to-head with Olympian Jordan Chiles (10.0) in the event.
“I kept the style of floor routine that I had last year with the 80s rock songs. That really fits with me,” she said. “It is what I have the most fun doing.”
She also helped the No. 15 Spartans upset No. 10 Michigan on Sunday, Feb. 1.
Lebster has worked on fine-tuning so much of her routine, not just the passes. She has a new leap (switch side-half straddle jump) she is working on mastering, plus an aerial straddle jump.
“Landings is big. If there are no deductions on landing, you probably don’t have deductions on that part. Endurance plays a big role for floor,” Lebster said. “If you have a difficult enough routine, you only need to have two passes instead of three. When you get to that third pass, it is terrifying because you are so tired by the end of the routine. A lot of it is air awareness. I do a lot of twisting and that requires core strength and awareness to find your landings. We lift twice a week and that is a huge part of floor, too. When you are lifting and doing squats, it totally translates to floor, you become more explosive.”
School has been just as important to Lebster, who has a cumulative 4.0 grade-point average through three and a half years at MSU. The kinesiology major is a three-time Scholastic All-American and will likely be on her way to a four-year sweep of that accolade. She is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Now, she is looking to make that kind of mark on the floor.
The Spartans won the Big Ten her sophomore season and reached the NCAA regional final. Last year, MSU was second in the Big Ten, but won the NCAA regional second round and took second in the NCAA regional final to advance to the NCAA Championships semifinal for the first time since 1988, where the Spartans took fourth.
“It is so special being part of this re-rise. I grew up watching MSU gymnastics as a little girl. I was always amazed by them,” Lebster said. “They haven’t always been a powerhouse in gymnastics, but the year before I got here, we really shot up and I knew I was going to be a part of something great. You think you are at the highest point, and you go a little bit further the next year.”
The Spartans are hoping to make the second day of the NCAA Championships this year.
“This team is nuts,” she said. “We have depth like crazy. Some events the entire team could be ready to compete. We have crazy talent.”
Contact sports editor Dan D’Addona at Dan.D’Addona@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @DanDAddona or Facebook @HollandSentinelSports.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: MSU’s Stephanie Lebster goes toe-to-toe with Olympian Jordan Chiles and thrives
Reporting by Dan D’Addona, Holland Sentinel / The Holland Sentinel
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