‘Bright star’ Bluffton native named All-American at NCAA Gymnastics Championships
Ona Loper was back home last week after a “season of a lifetime.”
Last month, the Bluffton native was in Fort Worth, Texas, leading her University of Minnesota squad in the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship semifinals.
In a year where college sports appeared to be in jeopardy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Loper, whose family lives in Old Town, raked in the awards.
She’s an NCAA All-American gymnast, a First Team All-Big Ten honoree, a WCGA All-American and was a nominee for the prestigious AAI Award. She set a career high in all-around and led her team at the NCAA Championships while also earning Academic All-Big Ten honors.
Though the Golden Gophers did not win it all, going to nationals was an honor, she said.
“The season was kind of crazy,” she said. “To still do pretty well, even with kind of the unknowns of how the season would go, it was pretty exciting. To be able to just, as a team, come together, and have our best season since I’ve been here, it was really a fun experience.”
Last week, she came back to Bluffton for a quick break to visit with friends and family before heading back to Minnesota to train for her final year. Loper will graduate with a masters degree in epidemiology next year.
Loper was raised in Old Town Bluffton and started gymnastics when she was 4 years old, she said. She wanted to be like her older sister Charlotte.
“I wasn’t super good, honestly,” she said. “I was really small. I liked doing flips, but I wasn’t the best gymnast.”
She was 9 when she started training at Summit Gymnastics in Savannah. Her coaches immediately recognized her potential.
“She was this teeny weeny, little spry thing,” said Shelley Davis, Loper’s coach at Summit. “She was gangly, with not a whole lot of technique, but you could see she was very, very talented. Her drive and her mental state were probably the most obvious things. She’s just a sharp kid, very focused and driven.”
Loper’s talent and drive quickly caught the attention of Division I coaches and, by ninth grade, she had already verbally committed to Minnesota. She was homeschooled before attending May River High School her senior year.
At Minnesota, Loper became a “bright star,” Davis said.
Before developing into one of the team’s top performers and leaders, however, she suffered a torn Achilles tendon, abruptly ending her freshman season.
“I was completely devastated,” she said. “I didn’t want to just give up. So I really worked hard to do rehab and get back and be patient with it so I could make the rest of my college career as successful as I could.”
She soon regained her confidence and excelled in vault and floor competitions her sophomore and junior years. This year, her senior season, Loper’s Golden Gophers made it to nationals for the first time since 2016.
“She’s shining so brightly,” Davis said. “It’s so cool to watch her contribute to that team and become a leader of that team. We feel so lucky and fortunate to watch her grow into that person.”
Her parents usually try to attend at least one of her home meets each year, Loper’s father, Stephen Loper, said. And they haven’t missed a single event on TV. Sometimes her father gets so nervous watching, he has to get up and walk around, he said.
“We’ve had people over to watch her on TV,” he said. “We just hold our breath the whole time she’s doing one of her routines.”
Throughout her college career, Ona Loper has received a lot of encouragement from her hometown and some of her old teachers, she said. Some people may even recognize the maroon and gold flag hanging from the second-floor porch of her parents’ house in the heart of Old Town.
“My parents always post on Facebook, and I see all the comments from that, which is super sweet,” she said.
When she’s back home in Bluffton, she said she loves visiting the May River, spending time with her family and friends, writing and listening to music.
“I think it’s just so beautiful in Bluffton,” she said. “And we live downtown, so it’s just kind of fun to walk the streets.”
Now, Loper is focused on training for her final season. She hopes her Golden Gophers squad can make it back to nationals.
And she wants her Bluffton friends to know she’s not freezing up in Minnesota.
