Every Sacramento State sports team is made up of unique individuals, all of whom with their own personal stories of how they ended up in Sacramento. One team that is full of unique athletes and stories is the Sac State women’s gymnastics team.

Of the 20 student-athletes currently on the active roster, two gymnasts came from somewhat unexpected places to arrive at Sac State: Amanda Blauvelt and Jasmine Lipka.

Blauvelt is from Wall, N.J., and Lipka is from Anchorage, Alaska.

Blauvelt’s journey to Sacramento has brought her 5,909 miles from her home in N.J. As for Lipka, her journey brought her 3,163 miles from her home. Coincidently, these two teammates reside together.

So how do two athletes, so far away from home, choose Sac State to study and compete? Blauvelt’s main desire to come to college was that she wanted to compete in college gymnastics.

“I wanted to find a school that was in a cool location and that would be competitive with my skill level,” she said. “I went to California once before coming here to Sacramento and thought that it was something I should try. After talking to the coach and checking out the school, I knew it was a great place for me.”

For Sac State, Blauvelt competes as a specialist on the uneven bars, but can be seen showing her abilities on the beam, floor and vault from time to time.

Lipka’s journey to Sacramento was a bit more standard.

“I was recruited by Kim Hughes, the head coach of the women’s gymnastics team,” Lipka said. “I came on a recruiting trip in my senior year of high school and then was offered a full-ride scholarship and accepted it.”

Lipka competes in three of the four events for the Hornets. The one event that she does not compete in is vault.

“My least favorite (event) is vault,” Lipka said. “I had also struggled with it during my club years of gymnastics and then when I got a stress fracture in my shin freshman year, myself and the coaches decided that vault just wasn’t going work out anymore.”

Gymnastics head coach Kim Hughes said he has three specific criteria that every gymnast must have before he will offer that gymnast a spot on the team.

In the case of Lipka and Blauvelt, they went above and beyond that criteria.

“They both sent videos of them performing their routines in competition and I got a chance to see them in compete as well,” Hughes said. “Before I offer any athlete a spot, they must; be performing event skills at a high competitive level, they need to be able to work well with other teammates, and they must be coachable.”

Blauvelt said her parents played a big roll in her academic life because they made sure her schooling always came first.

“When I was younger, I would have a seven-hour school day followed by a four-hour practice and an hour commute, there and back, with dinner and homework waiting for me at the kitchen table,” Blauvelt said. “So I definitely learned a thing or two about time management, priorities and how to remain balanced.

Lipka also finds time to study in her busy life. She said if she needs help with her school work, help is never far away.

“Balancing academics with gymnastics can be a struggle, especially when it’s midterms and we have competitions in the same week,” Lipka said. “As student-athletes we get a lot of help for advisers and tutors so if you need help there is always someone there (who) has helped me out a lot.”

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]