The club gymnastics team had just gotten back to Raleigh after a long weekend of nationals, where the team placed third, and was ready to get back on the beams for its last practice of the season.

But as the team entered Carmichael Gymnasium’s gymnastics area with trophy in hand, the only greeting was nearly 50 students trying out for the cheerleading team, pushing the now nationally-renowned gymnastics club into a corner of the gym.

Though the mix-up ended up only being a scheduling error, it typifies the kind of respect that many club teams face, including the gymnastics team.

“We were supposed to have this place, but today of all days it got messed up,” Allison Bailey, the club’s president and a senior in statistics, said hours after getting back from nationals. “The varsity teams definitely get preference.”

The team’s trip to nationals in Greensboro was its first in the club’s five-year history. The team used a win in its annual competition in Chapel Hill to propel itself to a surprising third-place finish at nationals.

The competition, part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs, lasted from Thursday through Saturday. With five teams in each preliminary grouping, only the top team automatically makes it to the finals — State finished third.

“We didn’t think we were going to make it,” Hannah Cheek, a senior in biological sciences, said.

But not only did the Pack make the finals — one of eight teams to do so — but it placed third.

“We were one of the smallest teams there,” Cheek said. “We knew there were a lot of good teams there, so when we heard we got third, we were jumping up and yelling and screaming.”

And though the club is still small compared to many other clubs across the nation, the group has been growing since its inception five years ago.

The club serves as a haven for many gymnasts who may have otherwise given up on the sport once entering college. Most of the gymnasts were on club teams as high school students.

“Most competed in level nine or 10 club teams — those who are on the varsity team compete in 10 or elite,” Bailey said.

According to Cheek, several of the gymnasts chose to go the club route after suffering near-career-ending injuries in high school.

“A lot of us were high-level gymnasts at one point, but got knocked out because of some injury, and now we just do one or two events,” Cheek, who suffered a shoulder tear in high school, said. “I had to have surgery, and I didn’t think I’d be able to do gymnastics again.”

That would have been difficult to swallow for many of the gymnasts, including Cheek, who started gymnastics at a very young age.

Cheek, who grew up on a farm outside of Burlington, N.C., used to swing on the bars of farm equipment that she found sitting around.

“I was always dong tricks on those,” Cheek said. “But my dad was scared I would get hurt, so they enrolled me in gymnastics. And I took off from that.”

Sophomore Betsy Newsome got in trouble when she was 4 years old for flipping over her couch.

“My mom took me straight to gymnastics class,” she said.