Balanced leadership: senior gymnast aiming for third straight MAC title
At five-years old Kristin Tuebner's back flips and stunts off the back of the couch weren't amusing to her mother.
So Kristin's mother Connie Tuebner decided it would be after to put her daughter into a gymnastics program.
“My mom thought that it wasn’t very safe, so she stuck me in a program at the local Y,” Teubner said.
Now a senior at Central Michigan, Teubner hasn’t stopped doing flips.
Last year she was the Mid-American Conference co-gymnast of the year, following a season she was named to the MAC all-academic team. Teubner was also the MAC’s top performer on the vault and floor.
Becoming a leader
Since her freshman year, when she won the MAC Freshman of the Year award, Teubner has been producing for the CMU gymnastics team. But now during her last year on the squad she faces a different challenge.
“I’m one of the captains, so I’m going to have more of a vocal role this year," Teubner said. "In the past I’ve been a leader by example, so I’m pretty excited about that."
Head coach Jerry Reighard expects Teubner to lead.
“She is captain of the team this year, she’s very inspirational to the entire team,” Reighard said.
But Teubner still expects greatness from herself.
“I’ll be more vocal in the gym, and be a leader that way. But also in the gym being an all-arounder, and current MAC champion,” she said. “I try to step up my game by showing everyone how to do it right the first time and how it should be done.”
Fellow senior captain Samantha Piotrowski has been with Kristin from the beginning.
“Kristin is one of the most valuable girls we have on the team, she is one of the most outstanding all-arounders on the team,” Piotrowski said. “You can’t replace Kristin’s gymnastics, it’s a statement to how hard she has worked since coming here, because she wasn’t as phenomenal as she is now.”
After racking up awards her first three years, Teubner has pushed her goals higher.
“I just try and focus on making myself better each day, and focusing on my goals like going to Nationals this year, and I’d like to repeat as MAC champion. So if I take care of those goals, other things will take care of themselves,” Teubner said.
Teubner has been a key member on back-to-back MAC championship teams. But not winning it her freshmen year is what has Teubner motivated.
“It feels awesome to win a MAC championship, but my freshmen year we missed out on being champions,” she said. “It was heart breaking so it’s great that we’ve done it the past two years, to get a third would be amazing.”
The health-fitness major with a 3.7 GPA has caught the public’s eye with her academics.
Recently Teubner received the Dick-Enberg Scholar Athlete of the Year award. The award recognizes a junior athlete that excels in both academics and athletics.
“It’s a great honor, there are so many awesome athletes here at Central that do well in academics as well as on the field and the fact that they thought I was the top person for this year is a really great feeling,” she said.
Teubner said she wants to go out on top as a senior.
“My goal for this year is to be MAC senior of the year, repeat as MAC champion and compete at nationals," she said.
