While most 3-year-olds are busy playing in the sandbox or building misshapen buildings out of Lincoln logs, Alexis Tsurumoto was beginning a career.

A career in gymnastics which led her to Sacramento State, where she has become one of the most consistent members on the team meet after meet.

However, back-to-back foot injuries hampered her early career. Tsurumoto is now doing things that have never been done by a Hornet.

Before signing her Letter of Intent with the Hornets, the international business major was an all-arounder on the gymnastics national circuit.

During her career as national gymnast, Tsurumoto broke the big toe on her left foot, first on the vault after slipping on the launching board, which required surgery, then again after hitting her foot on one of the bars during a swing around maneuver.

Tsurumoto also had to overcome a third injury; this time it was her knee.

She had to wait out the 2004 season while recovering from a torn ACL in the 2003 Junior Olympics. The injury came during a twisting flip maneuver on the floor exercise.

“There was lots of therapy and that continued when I came to Sac State,” Tsurumoto said.She took it all in stride and her scores have gone through the roof since she bounced back onto the mats.

Her previous coach, Tracy Talavera, gave the Hornets a great competitor. Before leaving Golden Bear Gymnastics in Berkeley, Tsurumoto was a two-time level 10 USAF regional qualifier on the uneven parallel bars in 2000 and 2002. Being a level 10 gymnast is the pre-qualifier to making the Olympic team.

Head coach Kim Hughes was able to sweet talk Tsurumoto in committing to Sac State. “The coaching staff was the main reason I came here,” says Tsurumoto. “I think that [Hughes] is a really good coach.”

She also placed in the top three in five meets between 2000 and 2002, taking first place at the Maui Invitational in 2000.

This year the Concord native has become the top performer as part of a bars team that hopes to set a new school record, the only event not to have a new record set in the 2004 season.

Tsurumoto’s intense routine on the uneven parallel bars is scored out of ten possible (the maximum amount) with a full twisting double flyaway dismount. She is the first athlete to perform this move in competition in the history of the school.

She has won five of eight possible bars competitions this year. One of those losses, against Brown, was due to a fall during her routine, her only fall of the year.

Her consistency could be contributed to her tenacity to succeed in sports and school. For this competitor, student comes first in student-athlete, which started while at Clayton Valley High School in Concord.

“I like to get good grades,” says Tsurumoto. “So when I got out of the gym, I went right to doing my homework.”

This self discipline has transferred over to the bars, having not fallen in five straight meets in an event that is constantly denying gravity; all of this while she is taking an 18-unit course load this spring.

She is still pushing herself to break the 9.900 mark in her first competitive season in college. For the season Tsurumoto averages a 9.634.

Tsurumoto wants to raise her scores for the team score. The ultimate goal for her and Hughes would be to make the NCAA West Regionals.

“It would be great to go as a team,” says Tsurumoto. “We’re all so close and really good friends.”