Perfect 10: How this Mizzou gymnastics star stayed patient in wait for perfect score

They all knew.

The whole Mizzou gymnastics team knew the second all-rounder Sienna Schreiber touched down from her dismount on the beam.

Missouri coach Shennon Welker, his coaching staff and the entire Missouri roster gathered around Schreiber in a hurry.

Every finger on every hand was flashing in unison. All together, they chanted “10.”

The judges agreed.

Schreiber was awarded a perfect score for her beam routine in the Tigers’ meet against Arkansas on Sunday at the Hearnes Center in Columbia. It was the first 10 on beam for Missouri gymnastics since Lauren Schwarterman managed the feat in 2004. It was just the fifth perfect score in team history.

The fifth-year standout has multiple 9.975s on the beam over her MU career.

Perfection in the eyes of the judges has been elusive, but on Sunday it arrived.

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“It honestly didn’t feel real,” Schreiber said. “I feel like I've been waiting for this moment and not hoping — well, kind of hoping — it was gonna happen, and today when it actually happened I really didn't know what to do and I just started crying.”

It wasn’t enough to carry No. 13-ranked Missouri past the visiting Razorbacks, who defeated MU 197.650-197.525.

Missouri’s score, despite the loss, was a new season-high — fifth all-time — and is likely to see the Tigers climb in the national rankings.

The final score was somewhat of a sideshow to perfection.

Schreiber is a graduate student out of Cumming, Georgia. She’s been with the program all five years of her college career, which Welker said was as much of a chance taken on Schreiber’s end as it was from Missouri.

But the results have always been there.

Schreiber broke the program’s all-time points record earlier this season. On Sunday, Schreiber also surpassed her previous best for all-around score, posting a 39.650 across the four disciplines for the sixth-best score in Missouri history.

Ten out of 10, however, has been a long time coming, Welker said. He’s watched Schreiber put up routines that were worthy of the number before. The coach even said that if Sunday’s routine was a 10, there’s likely been a “few “10.1s” before.

“It's not a shocker that Sienna got a 10,” MU teammate Jocelyn Moore said. “She's had so many different routines that have been of 10 caliber, she just hasn't reached that score yet. So tonight, to actually see her get that score, I wasn’t surprised at all, because she puts hard work into the gym day in and day out.”

Schreiber said there were hints that the score might be on the horizon while she was going through her routine.

Glimpses at teammates here, positive reactions from coaches there; the signs were encouraging.

But Schreiber didn’t let the thought enter her head until after the routine was over.

“You can feel it coming a little in my dismount, and I'm like, ‘no, no, no. Reset. We're still in routine, let’s hit the dismount,’” Schreiber said. “But then after I hit the dismount, whether I get the 10 or not, it's just, like — I feel really great about that routine.”

Schreiber is the seventh gymnast in the nation to post a perfect score on the beam this season. Entering Sunday’s meet, she was tied for seventh in the nation in the individual rankings on the apparatus, averaging 9.797.

That ranking is set to take a leap.

Earlier this season, Missouri’s Mara Titarsolej recorded a 10 on bars. Jocelyn Moore was awarded a perfect score on the vault during a meet against Auburn last season. Before them, only Lauren Schwartzmen had achieved the feat at Missouri, posting the score on beam twice in 2004.

Now, you can add Schreiber to the list.

That’s been a long time coming.

“I don't know, 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. So, having that today and just being able to celebrate, and be engulfed by my team is really special.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Perfect 10: How this Mizzou gymnastics star stayed patient in wait for perfect score