For someone who is competing in the NCAA national gymnastics championships for the second time in three years, senior Leigha Hancock makes sure she stays grounded.

“They’re pretty much the best people in college,” she said of the competition she will face in the balance beam event. “And we just want to make sure I don’t look too out of place.”

Judging by her performance at regionals, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. She tied for first on the beam despite facing a loaded Florida team in its home venue. The Gators boast four top-20 performers in the event and are the No. 3 beam squad in the country.

“If we can hang with a team at that level, she can hang with any team in the country,” coach Mark Stevenson said. “So she’s in good shape. All she has to do is her job.”

She has been in this competition before, representing the Pack in the floor exercise in Corvallis, Ore., in 2006. But beam is a totally different event, she said.

“My biggest concern is that beam is a hit-or-miss event. I can’t fake it. If I was going for floor, sometimes you can fake it and try and get away with as much as you can, but you can’t get away with things on beam,” Hancock said. “It’s either you make it or you don’t, and everybody sees it.”

But instead of traveling across the country again, Hancock will only have to make the short trip to Athens, Ga., today in preparation for her competition, which begins Thursday at the University of Georgia, a change she gladly welcomes.

“I like it a lot better, actually. Last time I went to Nationals, it was in Oregon, and I never competed there before,” Hancock said. “Here I know what to expect.”

Hancock the ‘best-ever’ at StateHancock is the only gymnast at N.C. State to ever at advance to nationals, now for the second time. Stevenson, who is in his 28th season as the team’s coach, said that is one of the things that makes her the best athlete ever to come through the program.

“She’s by far the best gymnast we’ve ever had,” Stevenson said. “It’s an attitude for Leigha.”

It’s something Stevenson said he could see the potential for even when he was recruiting her.

“Seeing the talent that she had, you could see that if she put her mind to it and really wanted to be good, she could be really good,” he said. “The question was: ‘Did she really want to be good?'”

But it almost never happened for her, as she almost quit gymnastics her senior year of high school. She stuck with the sport, though, and has reaped numerous rewards and accomplishments ever since. Her college accomplishments are far-reaching: 2005 East Atlantic Gymnastics League Rookie of the Year, as well as conference titles in the vault, beam and floor throughout her career to go with her two regional co-championships.

Junior teammate Ashley Shepard said Hancock’s determination is the driving force behind her success in wide array of events.

“She’s just a good all-around gymnast,” Shepard said. “She just has a mindset where she can accomplish anything she wants in those events, and that’s why she does well.”

Even now, though, Hancock said she doesn’t get too caught up in where she stands in Wolfpack gymnastics history.

“I just think of myself as me, and I just come in and I do what I like doing,” Hancock said. “And I go and compete, and I get lucky. I feel like I get lucky every time.”

Trip to nationalsShepard, who has been Hancock’s roommate on road trips the past couple of seasons, will be making the trip to support Hancock in her final collegiate meet. While Hancock is leaving today, Shepard won’t be able to leave until Wednesday around 7 p.m. after a class, a late start for a six-hour drive. It’s a sacrifice not lost on Hancock.

“It makes me feel really good that she cares enough to make the drive down to Georgia,” Hancock said.

She will be competing Thursday, where she will need to be in the top four to advance to Saturday’s eight-person finals. A top-six finish there would be enough to earn Hancock All-American honors, but she’s not holding her breath.

“That would be a really big accomplishment if I did,” Hancock said. “But I’m not counting on it.”

An end, a beginningAs she enters her final meet, the Olympics appear to be off her radar. Stevenson said it is usually younger gymnasts who compete in the Olympics, and Hancock herself said she will have reached her end as a gymnast by the time this weekend’s event is over.

“My body is broken. I thought after Regionals my body was just going to succumb to all the injuries,” she said.

Needing only a physical education course this summer to complete her academic requirements, Hancock is also on the verge of graduating. But for now, she isn’t sure just what that will entail — only that she’s ready for it.

“I’m just really excited for the future,” Hancock said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but whatever it is, it’s going to be great.”