A tragic injury ended Samantha Cerio’s 18-year gymnastics career on Friday night.
The student-athlete from Huntersville, North Carolina, 22, was competing at the NCAA Regional Semifinal in Baton Rouge as a senior on Auburn University’s gymnastics team when she touched down badly while doing a blind landing on a tumbling pass — dislocating and tearing ligaments in both of her knees in the process.
It was Cerio’s first pass as the Tigers’ floor exercise anchor and it would end up being her last.
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“It was pretty tough to watch,” Auburn’s coach Jeff Graba told theNew OrleansTimes-Picayune, adding that he’d never seen an injury like Cerio’s. “She’s a trooper. The last thing she said was, ‘Go help the girls.’ ”
Cerio’s teammates rallied around her before she left, uniting under the motto “Stick it for Sam,” according to the outlet.
They went on to earn an overall score of 197.075 — the second-highest for the Tigers all season, theTimes-Picayunereported. It earned them a spot in Saturday’s regional final, according to theTimes-Picayune.
“In the back of our minds we were all thinking that we know we can do it,” sophomore Drew Watson told the AuburnTigers.com. “We were all just having Sam in the back of our minds in a positive way. … We were pushing through for her.”
Samantha Cerio.Tony Gutierrez/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Meanwhile, Cerio —an aerospace engineering major with a job already lined up at Boeing in Seattle upon her graduation in May— remained in good spirits about her injury when she posted on Instagram later in the weekend.
“Friday night was my final night as a gymnast,” she wrote, captioning a gallery of photos from her time on the floor. “After 18 years I am hanging up my grips and leaving the chalk behind.”
“I couldn’t be prouder of the person that gymnastics has made me to become,” Cerio said. “It’s taught me hard work, humility, integrity, and dedication, just to name a few. It’s given me challenges and road blocks that I would have never imagined that has tested who I am as a person. It may not have ended the way I had planned, but nothing ever goes as planned.”
Cerio’s father did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment as to her condition, but according to a statement Graba posted to social media, Cerio will go into surgery on Monday with Dr. James Andrews.
“The Auburn Athletics Department is thankful for the outstanding care that the Auburn and LSU medical staffs have provided to Sam,” his statement read. “We are also thankful for the support form the LSU Athletics Department for going above and beyond in this situation. Sam is a fighter and is in great spirits. We couldn’t have a better leader for this team.”
source: people.com
