WALK-ON TO HALL OF FAMER: GUNZELMAN’S CINDERELLA STORY

One of the most accomplished and decorated gymnasts in Rutgers history, Alexis Gunzelman, will have her storied career from a walk-on to the only all-around national qualifier in program history further cemented into history. This fall, Gunzelman will be inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame with the Class of 2020. 

Across her career “On the Banks” from 2011-14, Gunzelman registered nine All-EAGL selections, four EAGL All-Academic Team honors, three Team MVP awards and three NCAA Regional appearances. Competing in 51 career meets, she earned nine All-EAGL selections, as well as seven first-team honors, which both mark the most for a Scarlet Knight. The two-time captain's leadership carried into the classroom, where the exercise science major earned four EAGL All-Academic Team and two NACGC/W Scholastic All-America honors. 

Gunzelman now adds one of the biggest honors to her story – a Hall of Fame induction.

“This is a huge honor. I feel like it really shows the possibilities for other people who start as walk-ons and what they can do. It’s really your passion, your desire and your dedication to getting better and giving back to the sport you're doing. It doesn't matter how you start, it's really how you finish. Being inducted into the Hall of Fame shows all that,” said Gunzelman.

The former Scarlet Knight holds numerous records for the program to this day. The Tabernacle, New Jersey, native owns the NCAA-meet records for RU on uneven bars (9.825) and all-around (39.175). Her career-high all-around mark of 39.400 stands second in program history. Her score of 39.175 at NCAA Regionals, which tied for second among the 14 competitors to send her to Nationals, is tied for the highest all-around score by a Rutgers gymnast at the NCAA level.

Scoring a 39 or better in all-around a school-record 13 times, Gunzelman lifted the Scarlet Knights' EAGL Championships score each season, capped by a team berth to NCAA Regionals as a senior in 2014. That season also saw Rutgers reach its highest-ever national ranking at No. 16, knocking off three ranked teams along the way and culminated in the squad's first regionals appearance since 2007.

“One of my favorite memories was during my senior year. I remember going to the EAGL championships, and all of us were so excited to be there. We had already qualified for Regionals so we were able to go out and have fun with it. I remember going from event to event just really excited, screaming and cheering. Every other time we would finish EAGL and that that was the end of our season, but that year it wasn’t.  We knew that we still had to go back and we had to train to go to Regionals. We still have this really amazing opportunity ahead, we aren’t done yet,” recalled Gunzelman.

The team capped a story-book year at the 2014 NCAA Regionals in Athens, Georgia. The meet was an historic one for the Scarlet Knights as a team, as well as individually for Gunzelman. 

Gunzelman would strengthen her legacy that day as one of only two Scarlet Knights at the time to qualify for NCAA Nationals and the only to make it as an all-arounder. She joined Courtney Turner (floor exercise, 2002), a 2014 inductee to the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame, as the only other Scarlet Knight then to have reached the highest stage.

“I remember finishing my last event, taking my grips off, putting my stuff away, getting my warmup on. My coaches Lou [Levine], Umme [Salim-Beasley] and Kara [Molinaro] conversing and Kara had this huge smile on her face.  I didn't really put two and two together because the meet was still going on.

“They were saying ‘you're not done, you're not done’. I found out that I had qualified to Nationals. Each of my coaches embraced me. I remember looking up at my entire family in the stands, my parents, my sisters, my husband and brother-in-law and just crying because they had been there through it all. They all traveled to every single meet that they possibly could. They traveled across state lines to cheer me on. It was a very emotional moment because I had trained so hard from college to high school. It just kind of showed how far my gymnastics had come and it was like the end of the perfect book,” said Gunzelman.

From walk-on to National qualifier, Gunzelman will now have her name etched into history with other Rutgers greats. She will share the honor with fellow New Jersey natives such as Carli Lloyd and Todd Frazier, and fellow gymnast Courtney Turner. 

“It's hard to kind of wrap my head around how big of a deal it is because gymnastics is just something I did. It was never work to me, it was fun. I think that that's why I always progressed every year along with my teammates. It was something that I enjoyed getting better at. Having this honor and really thinking about what it means to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, I have no words. 

“Out of all the athletes that are at Rutgers, it really is amazing that my name was even just nominated. I keep thinking did I really do that much? Did I really help that much? I would not have done as much as I did without my coaches and without my teammates that I had through the four years. I'm really happy that I even get to share this honor with them because it really is deserved for them as well,” said Gunzelman.

Throughout her entire gymnastics career, Gunzelman remembers her family’s support from her parents, George and Roseann, and sisters, Amanda and Jess. Her now husband, Collier, being there every single meet he could, recalling when he surprised her senior year by taking a road trip to away meets in Ohio with her dad. She is appreciative of the support from his family as well, now brother-in-law Bob and in laws Cheryl and Phillip, and Jim and Andrea.

She is thankful for her pre-college coach Scott Weller and all her Rutgers coaches who supported her and made her the person she is today. She is grateful for her teammates she competed with along the journey and made everlasting memories with. And this fall, Gunzelman is honored to celebrate this recognition with them, as well as her seven-month-old daughter, Grace, who she knows will be a gymnast one day.

Gunzelman, who is a Cardiac ICU nurse at Penn, is looking forward to celebrating this tremendous honor, especially after a year and a half of adversity for all. And is grateful she will have her family with her at the ceremony. A ceremony where she is ready to soak in every single moment and truly let the recognition sink in. 

“I never worked to get inducted to the Hall of Fame. But all of my hours and injuries culminates to this moment that I get to have for the rest of my life. I always look at my college years as a Cinderella story,” reflected Gunzelman. “I broke my back in high school, I broke my ankles a few times, and had countless surgeries. I didn't get a scholarship that I really wanted my freshman year but walked on to a great Division I program. 

“I did three events my freshman year, did all-around my sophomore year, and got a scholarship going into my junior year. I made it to regionals a couple of times and then senior year everything started turning around. We did really well at EAGL Championships, we beat really top program schools, and we made it to Regionals as a team. I made it to Nationals. It's just honestly crazy to think about the full journey. It really is just amazing.”