While Alabama gymnastics coach Sarah Patterson has changed her lineup around this season, mixing in freshmen to get experience while holding out some veterans to ease their workload, there has been one constant in the mix.

Senior Sarah DeMeo has competed in every routine this year, the only gymnast on the team to do so. She’s vaulting for the first time since her freshman year, and in last Friday’s meet against Auburn she won the all-around with a career-high 39.5.

“I’m extremely excited to be competing all-around again,” DeMeo said. “I finally feel confident in myself being an all-around gymnast and being that kind of contributor to the team. Of course the team comes first, and that success. If I come out on top on certain events and the all-around, that’s just icing on the cake.”

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Things weren’t exactly rosy for DeMeo coming into the season.

At last year’s NCAA Super Six finals, Alabama was neck-and-neck with the Florida Gators for the championship. On the Crimson Tide’s final rotation, the balance beam, Kayla Williams lost her balance twice. DeMeo followed with a fall, and the Gators took home the title.

“How I ended the NCAA championships was definitely the toughest situation I’ve had to go through,” DeMeo said. “It takes some time to get over hardship, and I made that my biggest goal and biggest area to improve on for this year. I really have just focused on the mental cues. And I think I’m doing a great job, and I continue improving because that’s what it comes down to in those high pressure situations. It just made me mentally stronger.”

Patterson said that is a critical reason why DeMeo has been able to carry so much of the load for No. 5 Alabama this season.

“We’ve worked really, really hard on narrowing her focus, not letting things distract her,” Patterson said. “Or if she kind of got in a mode where something wasn’t going right, ‘O.K., how do I change that mental focus?’ And I think the more she works on it, I think the better she gets.”

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The perfect example of this came before Alabama’s meet at Auburn.

In warmups, DeMeo opened up on a tumbling pass and “crunched her ankles a little bit,” Patterson said. In the past, this would’ve been a confidence killer for her, and Patterson would have taken her out.

“She turned around and she was like, ‘This is all mental. I’m fine,’” Patterson said. “And then she went out and had the best floor routine she’s had.”

While it’s unlikely DeMeo will continue competing in the all-around in every meet through the rest of the season, she’s shown an increased mental capacity and an ability to bounce back from adversity. And she can be a workhorse for Patterson at the end of the season, when the lineup tinkering will be over and Alabama’s big guns will try to win the program’s seventh title.

“My biggest goal for this year is to conquer those mental cues while I’m competing,” DeMeo said. “Especially in high pressure situations, like that NCAA championship situation following Kayla on beam. I want to practice like that in the gym so that when it comes out, maybe on the night of Super Six, I’ll be ready and I’ll be confident in myself.”

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