It’s easy to focus on personal goals when playing on a team, especially when the person is meeting such goals frequently.

But for sophomore gymnast Leigha Hancock, who tied for first on the floor at NCAA Regionals in Athens, Ga., April 8 to advance to the April 20 NCAA Championships in Corvallis, Ore., success is more about the team.

“I like to pick it up for the team and feel like my team is counting on me,” Hancock said.

She said sometimes her work ethic and pushing her teammates to go harder may come out the wrong way.

But coach Mark Stevenson said Hancock leads by example more than through the words she says.

“She pushes herself hard enough that it reflects to everybody else,” Stevenson said.

Not too bad for someone who said she was falling frequently at the beginning of the season.

Hancock said falls early in the season had her trying to avoid mistakes later in the season.

“Because the first four meets I fell so many times, it never felt to me that I was actually doing good because I fell all those times. And so I was just trying to not fall the rest of the time,” Hancock said. “I wasn’t even focusing on that, ‘Oh, wow, I did a good routine there. Oh, what? I won?'”

The story of how she tied for the victory in Athens is much the same way she was more worried about messing up than realizing she was excelling.

Hancock thought someone had already scored a 9.975 and that she would just about have to score a 10 to win on the floor. So instead of putting pressure on herself to go out and earn enough points to win, she simply went out and did what she could.

“I wasn’t really doing it even to win,” Hancock said. “I was just trying to get the best score I could because I thought that it was already taken.”

So after the event was over, Hancock was less than thrilled at the prospect that her best was not enough.

As it turned out, though, what she could do was good enough to earn her a shared win on the floor.

“The trainer came up to me again and was like, ‘Hey, I know you don’t feel good right now. You’re kind of disappointed, but I wanted to let you know that you’re tied for first place right now on the floor,'” Hancock said.

She was the first gymnast in school history to win an individual event at the regional competition. And she was off — qualified for the national competition to be held nearly two weeks later at Oregon State.

Hancock had competed in a large competition before — the Junior Olympics. From that, she had formed some expectations, but she was in for a surprise.

She said she was amazed by the level of talent of the gymnasts at the competition.

Hancock also noted the fun teams had while they were there and what it made her think of.

“It was just such an experience to see. I really want myself and my team to go [next year],” Hancock said.

Hancock’s father, Frank Hancock, said his daughter enjoyed gymnastics from an early age.

He said it has been incredible to see her continue to reach new levels of success in gymnastics.

“It’s kind of a dream of ours too, and she’s just making everything happen,” Frank Hancock said.

Hancock originally was not even going to try to compete in gymnastics in college before Stevenson discovered her when going to watch one of her teammates perform. Stevenson struck up a conversation and eventually convinced Hancock to join his team.

Looking back, Stevenson said finding Hancock was a great break for his program.

“Leigha was one of those kids who wasn’t heavily recruited by a lot of the upper-end schools,” Stevenson said. “We were lucky enough to step in there and pick her up.”