All-around standout: 4-foot-10-inch freshman performing big for USU
On a day when the high is expected to be 33 degrees Fahrenheit, there is at least one person in Logan brave enough to weather the temperature by wearing a T-shirt and shorts – native Minnesotan Megan Tschida, a freshman gymnast at Utah State.
“I love the weather [because] it’s so much warmer,” she said. “Minnesota is really cold.”
Tschida is the new freshman all-arounder for the Utah State gymnastics team. In gymnastics, an all-arounder is the gymnast that competes in all four events.
Although, she has to be able to compete well in each of the events, the floor is where Tschida really shines.
She said she loves to compete on the floor and she gets her highest scores in that event.
“I chose [to come to USU} because of the team that is really close,” Tschida said. “Right away I could feel a vibe. They really get along.”
Right now, Tschida is undeclared as far as her major goes, but she is looking into psychology and math. She said she would like to be a sports psychologist.
“I like to figure out what goes on in people’s heads and why,” she said.
As for the team and coaching staff that she gets to work with, Tschida could not be happier.
“I love the coaches. I feel like I have so much more of myself here,” she said. “They’re amazing and I feel like I can do anything.”
She said that the best thing about gymnastics, for her, is the team. She also said she thinks the team is awesome and that they all get along really well.
“They are always there,” she said. “If you fall, they are there to pick you up.”
As a woman standing at 4-feet-10-inches, Tschida said that if she weren’t competing in gymnastics, that she would be playing hockey. Hockey is very big in Minnesota – not to mention all of her family plays it, too.
All four of her brothers play hockey and soccer while her sister competed in gymnastics at Level 9.
Tschida’s mother was also a gymnast at Clarion State. Tschida said that the person she looked up to the most was her mother.
Her mother is the reason Tschida is in gymnastics today. Tschida said at the very early age of two, a mother-daughter gymnastics class first introduced Tschida to the art of gymnastics.
And she hasn’t stopped since.
Tschida said she gets noticed a lot.
One reason is because of her last name. The problem that has risen is about how to pronounce it. She said that she sometimes gets a lot of weird pronunciations.
Her name is Austrian and is pronounced, ‘Che-ta’. She said that here, ‘Tschida’ has become her name.
The one place that Tschida would visit is Australia.
She said the first place that she ever wanted to visit was Italy, but she got the opportunity to go with her mother in fifth grade, so now she dreams of Australia.
“I love their accents and it would be cool [to go],” she said about Australia. “It’s really warm there and I would like to see the outback. Besides I’m really into the warm weather. I can’t stand the cold.”
Tschida stepped up and stepped into the all-around role when teammate Jessica Parenti couldn’t compete at the beginning of the season.
Tschida finished second in the all-around in her first two meets this season.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu