After claiming two individual titles, and a personal career high in the vault, Brandi Personett wants the world to know one thing: It hasn't seen anything yet.
With the NCAA regional and national championships ahead, Personett and her team are composed after their second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships last weekend.
Though Penn State lost by one tenth of a point to Michigan on Saturday, Personett was still proud of her teammates and the way they competed throughout the competition.
"We definitely had the potential to win the title," Personett said. "We made a few mistakes and had a few falls, but the girls in the lineup made up for it and did an awesome job. After the meet, Coach [Steve Shephard] gave us a talk and told us that the score didn't matter and that we were champions in his eyes."
Along with the team silver medal, Personett had plenty more to celebrate. The freshman tied for fourth place in the beam with a 9.825 with Penn State sophomore Katie Perret and Illinois' Katie Kruk. Even though she was seeded No. 1 in the floor exercise going into the championship, she tied for third place with Penn State junior Aslynn Satterfield with a 9.850.
Personett said she would have rather won floor, but admitted Michigan junior Katie Lieberman deserved to win because she was always her stiff competition."
Personett took the crown in both the all-around with a 39.425 and unexpectedly swept the vault with a career-high and team season-high score of 9.950. Penn State knew it had to stick most of the routines in the vault going into the sixth rotation to keep pace with Michigan.
Even though Penn State scored its season-high team score in the vault with a 49.100, Michigan crept ahead of it with a 49.175 in the last rotation. Personett was last in the line-up and stuck her landing for the first time all season. She and the team were ecstatic and made an exception to their "meet etiquette."
"We usually aren't allowed to look at the scores during the meet, but after my vault, we definitely looked at the score," Personett said. "I wasn't even ranked in vault going into the meet, but I did a one and half vault and I was the only gymnast in the meet who did that. It's a little bit more difficult than other routines so I think that, and the landing, helped."
With her Big Ten medals, Personett also received the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award, which Shephard nominated her for. She was the second gymnast in Penn State history to receive this rookie award, along with Nikki Bongiovanni back in 1999. Personett said Shephard told her at the beginning of the meet that she was up for the award and that she felt honored to be nominated with the other gymnasts.
Now that the Big Ten season has come to a close, the NCAA championship season is among Personett and her team. As of yesterday, Penn State is ranked No. 1 in the Northeast region and No. 11 in the country with an average qualifying score of 195.319. Personett is regionally ranked No. 1 in the floor exercise, No. 3 in the all-around and No.4 in the vault. She is looking to qualify individually, but said she can't imagine going to nationals without her team.
"It wouldn't be worth it without my teammates," Personett said. "We've worked so hard this season and to me, qualifying as a team is more important. This is our next big challenge, and we're ready to show everyone we belong in the top six in the country."

