Two weeks ago, at the end of a successful but chaotic Ohio State meet, the Penn State women's gymnastics team waited anxiously to hear the recipient of the Ann Carr award.

As the PA announcer's voice echoed throughout Rec Hall, the team began to look down the line, wondering who it could be. He said the winner's favorite book was The Da Vinci Code and her favorite food was spaghetti.

Rosie Smith stood still with a smile on her face. She knew it was her.

Smith ran across the gym to claim her award: the most inspirational performance of the meet. She finally realized her hard work had paid off.

"I was in complete shock," Smith said.

"I was just really happy because I'm doing what I love to do, and winning that award was just so unbelievable."

This season, Smith, a freshman walk-on, has already proven that she belongs in the Penn State lineup with four vault titles and a season high of 9.850. She continues to progress in the floor exercise and she said she eventually wants to start competing in the all-around again. For now, Smith said her goal is to perfect her routines and compete to her best ability. Like the rest of her team, she is striving for that Big Ten title and also wants to compete in the next Super Six Challenge.

Not only was the Ann Carr award special because it was her first, but partially because Ann Carr was the woman who founded and started Smith's club team in high school. This reminded Smith about how far she had come since her days at Lakettes Gymnastics Academy and how lucky she felt to be a Penn State walk-on after a rocky recruiting process.

At the beginning of her senior year in high school, Smith was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her L5 vertebrae, a potential career-ending injury. The doctors predicted she would not fully recover and that her gymnastics days were over. Smith's mother, Darlene Smith, said she began to lose hope for the future, but her daughter refused to agree.

"I didn't think she'd be coming back, and it was so disappointing since she had gone to nationals and everything," Darlene Smith said. "It was devastating but Rosie kept saying, 'Mom I'm coming back.' She was very persistent and she did it. It was really amazing."

Smith was relegated to wearing a brace, went to physical therapy daily and eventually visited a specialist in Buffalo, N.Y. Her mother said she had noticed Smith had some other minor injuries, but the doctors provided a variety of programs to fix the issues that arose.

After 11 long months, Smith was finally cleared to participate in athletic activity. Although Smith was excited to be back on the mat, she realized that many of the colleges recruiting her were now uninterested because of her injury. Smith said she felt discouraged but did not give up hope yet.

"It was a nightmare for me because the injury couldn't have come at a worst time," Smith said. "The colleges didn't know what I could do because I couldn't practice. By the time I was fully healed, it was the summer before my freshman year in college and I knew I had to make my come back somehow."

Last summer after her recovery, Smith went to Woodward, Pa., to participate in Woodward Camp's gymnastic program to help regain her technique and skills. Before camp, she decided that she would attend Penn State in the fall of 2006, even if she didn't compete with the gymnastics team. With the Nittany Lions on her mind, Smith decided to contact Penn State head coach Steve Shephard to let him know her interest.

Shephard heard about Smith's talent earlier in the summer through Mark Welch, a judge who occasionally works Penn State's home meets. After one e-mail from Welch, Shephard knew that taking a look at Smith was worth a shot. Shephard's assistant coach Jess Bastardi discovered Smith during her session at Woodward and decided to unofficially recruit her.

"[Mark] Welch e-mailed me and said, 'You should take a look at this kid', " Shephard said. "When we saw her workout in person at Woodward Camp, we knew that she was going to be good for us. We decided to make a commitment to bring her on the team as a walk-on and we think we got a real nice catch."

Since the summer of 2005, Smith has defied the injury odds and made up her own definition for "the walk-on." After a close call, Smith said she is grateful for her Penn State opportunity and believes that all her hard work was worth it. With Smith's work ethic, her mother believes that her daughter is capable of doing anything.

"She's on the quiet side but she's intense and doesn't complain or whine. She's always been like that," Darlene Smith said. "Nothing bothers her. She just gets the job done."