By Logan Hanson
FightingIllini.com
As the Illini women's gymnastics team awaited their fate for the upcoming gymnastics regionals in the State Farm Center, nervous anticipation was at a fever pitch for the season. While most of the team stared at the screen waiting for their team's selection, it may have been as nerve-racking of a moment for most of the members on the team this season. For one Illini however, the intensity may not even be in the top three.
Sophomore Rachel Borden's, season may have been filled with more stressful moments than the rest of the unit put together. Although she had an impressive club résumé during her high school career at Legacy Elite Gymnastics, Borden did not come to University of Illinois with the intention of continuing her athletics career into college.
"I had been in contact with other schools, but when my senior year rolled around I didn't really have many opportunities because a lot of the other spots had filled up at other universities so I kind of decided I wasn't going to do gymnastics," said Borden, "When I was picking my schools, I got in here and I was like this is where I wanted to go since I was a kid, this is the school for me."
Borden, who lived in Naperville, Illinois and attended Neuqua Valley High School, had been interested in the University of Illinois from a young age. With her mother being an alumnus of the university, Borden had a number of opportunities to visit the campus throughout her life and with a great program in her field of study, it was a match made in Heaven.
"I joined the University of Illinois because it has an outstanding engineering program," said Borden, "Growing up I knew I always wanted to be an engineer and I actually wanted to go to this school since I was little so it just worked out really well that it had a good engineering program."
Rachel Borden posing next to the Engineering Hall on her campus visit.
During her freshmen year at the University, Borden took the year off to focus on her academic pursuit of becoming an engineer. However, as the year finished up, the competitive itch in Borden began to emerge. With gymnastics being a significant part of most of her life, Borden wanted to return to the sport she committed so much to. In the fall of last year, Borden attempted to try out for the Illini varsity gymnastics team. Nervous moment number one. Unfortunately, Borden fell just short of making the roster, but was able to stay close to gymnastics team when she was offered a role with the varsity team as the team's manager.
"Going my freshmen year without doing gymnastics at all, I realized I just really missed it and so I wanted to get back into it," said Borden, "So I had a tryout and when that didn't work out, [Head Coach Nadalie Walsh] offered me the manager position so I said yes because all the girls on the team were so nice and so sweet so I wanted to be able to stay in touch with all of them…and it was just a good opportunity too."
"To be honest when we didn't have her join the team in the fall, she just had an amazing character," said Walsh about Borden, "You could tell she had a heart of gratitude, she's really grateful and very thankful and polite and those are really great qualities that I think that are sometimes hard to find one human that has all of them so right away we wanted her to stay part of the program."
While she was working as the varsity team's manager, Borden was also continuing her effort to make the roster the next year by being a member of the club team. During this time, Borden worked under the tutelage of former Orange and Blue gymnast Sarah Lyons, who was part of the varsity team from 2014-2018, and current varsity team member, junior Rae Balthazor. Lyons and Balthazor were crucial to Borden's advancement continually encouraging her to stay in touch with the varsity coaching staff with updates on her performances and progress. One of these email exchanges would give Borden the news she had been waiting to hear. Nervous moment number two.
"Probably a week before [I was added to the roster], I emailed them updates and Sarah was like, 'Hey, you have a meet coming up you should email them updates and say hey we have a club meet this weekend, I just want you to know where I'm at so then they know you're still on their radar' because I still wanted to get on the team my junior year," said Borden, "A week later, I sent them the week of my actual club meet of when I was supposed to compete and the I got a call the next day from Nadalie asking if I wanted to join now and I was like 'Yeah!'"
"It was so surreal," said Borden, "I didn't even know when I sent the email, I had no clue that they would do that because I didn't even think you could add somebody this late in the semester and it was so unexpected, it was amazing."
Although Borden was able to celebrate the euphoric feeling of being added to the varsity roster, it was a quick turnaround for the newest member of the unit. Borden was only a member of the team for 24 hours before their next meet against the University of Iowa in Iowa City on February 16. That wasn't all, Borden would also compete for the Illini as a member of the beam team. In her first varsity meet, it was time for Borden to show her skills on the big stage. Nervous moment number three. For Borden, watching her teammates perform helped her prepare for her moment.
"After watching all of them do their amazing gymnastics it was very motivating for me to be like 'I want to get up and I want to hit my stuff too I want to be in this group with them.' That was what was going through my head, it didn't really hit me until the second I got up and it's like oh this is happening," said Borden, "I was a little bit nervous, I was a little bit shaky, but what was going through my head was trust myself, do the skills I know how to do."
Borden did not just perform adequately, she wowed. After sticking the landing, the rest of her teammates swarmed Borden. Borden knew that she hit the routine well and the judges agreed giving her a 9.700 out of 10. Another surreal moment for a person who just a few days before did not even expect to be on the roster. Now, it seemed she was a full-fledged member of the team.
"After I saluted and stuck it, it was amazing," said Borden, "I was a little bit nervous about messing something up on the beam when I got on the beam, but then after I made it, I was like 'I did it!' Then everyone came up and hugged me and it was so nice, and it made me feel like I was actually a part of the team now, everyone was high fiving me and it was so fun honestly."
The performance itself went viral. It's not every day that a former club team member can excel on the varsity after only being a part of the unit for one day. It's not only the story that brought people from all over to see Borden's performance, it was what she brought to her performance, a talent that few other gymnasts possess.
"I feel like she brought a wow factor because her routine is really unique and really different" said Walsh, "When she does her skills people kind of watch with their jaws open like how is that humanly possible?"
In addition to Borden's wow factor to the beam team, she also helped to bring out the best of the rest of the unit. With Borden's quality performances and confidence, the unit also worked to step their game up.
"She brought a level of confidence, she was nervous of course with the bright lights and the big stage, but she had a level of confidence in her gymnastics," said Walsh, "And I think she is a part of the reason that the rest of the girls were kind of taking a hard look at that and being like 'hey if she can go up there and hit after being here two days, I should be able to hit every time after being here all year, two years and four years."
Borden followed up her electric performance with a 9.625 to lead off the beam team at the Big Five Meet in Toledo, Ohio a week later and posted a career-high 9.875 for a third-place finish at the State of Illinois Classic on March 9. With Borden's help, the Illini were able to finish as the runner-up at the Big Ten Championships, the team's highest finish since 2017. The result also put the Orange and Blue into the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional where they will have a first round dual meet against Central Michigan. Borden sees an opportunity for a talented unit to show their potential.
"I think we as a team have a lot of potential and I am really excited," said Borden, "A lot of the girls who didn't really get to compete a lot during the season are now stepping up and it's really fun to see all the girls who were maybe injured at the beginning are now getting their skills back and we have a lot of potential and I am really excited to see what we put out in our last couple weeks of the season."
As the University of Illinois flashed on the screen for their first round selection into the NCAA Ann Arbor Regional, a cheer rang out in the State Farm Center. A sense of relief fell over the team as their postseason anxiety of the unknown fell to the wayside. Borden may not have had the same sense of relief because she had already gone through much more tense moments than a selection show this season.
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