COLUMBIA, Mo. — Sienna Schreiber stayed balanced to Billy Joel, leaped from the beam to bated breath and landed in an explosion of cheers.
The graduate Missouri gymnast had done this dance before: cleanly execute a beam routine, then wait and hope that the judges would agree with her teammates chanting “10†over and over. In the past, there were times when one judge would hold up the magical bit of binary code, a one and a few zeroes, only for the other judge to deliver a clunk 9.95.
“It’s been so long,†Schreiber said, “and I feel like I’ve had routines where I feel like that could have been it and it just wasn’t.â€
But on March 3, there was one 10, a concurring 10, and it was it. The most productive gymnast in Mizzou’s history had her piece of perfection — the fifth time a Tiger had landed a 10 on any event.
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The Billy Joel-laced soundtrack playing through the Hearnes Center speakers recapped the five years of collegiate gymnastics that had led to Schreiber’s 10. “When will you realize Vienna waits for you?†went the song as she dismounted. Masked by the excitement were the incredibly pertinent next few bars: “Slow down, you’re doing fine. You can’t be everything you want to be before your time.â€
Right on cue, up came the 10s. Everything a gymnast wants, and it was Schreiber’s time.
So much had come together for Schreiber’s routine. It was one of her last home meets of her career and her mom’s birthday. It was another high mark for the all-arounder who had become MU’s all-time leading scorer a month prior.
It was a coincidence that “Vienna,†a song with a title that rhymes with her name and lyrics that seem so tethered to the moment unfolding on the balance beam, was playing. Gymnasts choose the songs that play in the background, but a behind-the-scenes mistake meant that Schreiber performed with someone else’s track — she prefers one of her favorite bands’ cover of Train’s “Drops of Jupiter.â€
She, of course, didn’t notice that at the time. Going from dialed in to elated doesn’t leave much room for catching trivialities like musical mix-ups.
“That’s iconic,†Schreiber said once she learned what Billy Joel had been singing. And yes, she’s still thinking about that routine and what it means for her career and legacy.
“I would rather have one 10 versus like 15 10s,†she said. “It sounds crazy, but I can say that because I feel like I’ve had a lot of routines that were 10 quality that I’ve been very proud of. But the fact that I never gave up on myself and continued to not let that take over how I felt about beam and get frustrated about it — and just that it finally happened at home and (in) my extra year, it’s so much more special to me.â€
There was no real debate over whether Schreiber would leverage an extra year of eligibility for this fifth and final season. She was asking MU gymnastics coach Shannon Welker whether he’d have a spot for her before last season was even done.
Schreiber was having too much fun to stop any earlier than she had to. And there was unfinished business to take care of — some of which that beam routine settled.
“But it’s also like I don’t want to focus on trying to recreate that again,†Schreiber said. “I just want to focus on how I got there, which is what I do every week.â€
Sticking to the “how†is the name of the gymnastics game for Missouri, which will compete Saturday at the Southeastern Conference Championships in New Orleans. Expectations are high for the 13th-ranked Tigers, who are entering the postseason with the goal of another run in the NCAA Championships.
The SEC contains most of the nation’s best gymnastics programs. MU is seeded sixth in the conference despite sitting in the country’s 13 best teams.
The star power of this weekend’s competition isn’t lost on the Tigers, including Schreiber, who has been on the last three All-SEC teams.
This is what she was looking for when she was a recruit out of Forsyth County, Georgia.
“I definitely wanted to have some competition between some of the schools I looked at but didn’t think I could make,†Schreiber said, “so being able to compete with them and give them a run for their money has been really rewarding, honestly.â€
Don’t mistake that for misplaced focus, though. There’s no defense in gymnastics, so the “control what you can control†cliché rings truer in a competition based solely on putting up scores. Thinking too much about the other teams is risky.
“When you start thinking of it like that, the nerves come out and you start overthinking, you get stiff,†Schreiber said.
Even as one of her last ones, Saturday will be about the same things that every meet has been for Schreiber since her 10 — sticking to processes, posting high marks in each event and chasing perfection without dwelling on achieving it.
Perfection, for her, hasn’t just been about a score, even if that validates it. It’s also something she has found and appreciated about her storied Missouri career.
“It’s the feeling of being so calm and relaxed from doing something you love,†Schreiber said. “It’s a feeling that I’m scared it’ll take a while to find something that I feel that way about.â€