CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona senior gymnast Andi McCabe vaulted the first perfect 10 in her collegiate career last month, helping her reach the No. 7 ranking, nationally, in the event.

Great athletes make great plays when they count.

Sprinting down a runway before hurling your body off a springboard and punching over a pommel horse would result in a trip to the emergency room for the average person. Throw in some antigravity flips, twists and a solid landing, and you have Arizona Gymcat Andi McCabe's afternoon.

"Andi brings Îbig play' mentality to our team. She throws huge difficulty, huge skills and she's a very tough athlete," said head coach Bill Ryden.

Add a perfect landing to the previous mix, and you get McCabe on Feb. 23 in Denton, Texas, when the senior vaulted the first perfect 10 in her collegiate career. Being far away from home made it that much harder to pull off.

"I thought there (was) no way I could get one," McCabe said of the perfect score. "It was crazy. Before I did it, we were on floor and (teammate Katie Johnson) got a 10. We were all jumping up and down and laughing."

Gymnasts can attribute the 10 to more than a perfect performance in any one event.

Recognizing the other performances leading in, along with the preceding judges' grades, is vital to flawless scoring, Ryden said.

"Andi had been there before but wasn't able to capitalize. She would try too hard," Ryden said. "She really didn't think about it too much, and just drilled it."

McCabe is ranked No. 7 nationally in vault with a 9.935 season average.

"I just remember being so excited that I called my mom and she was crying because she couldn't be there," McCabe said.

Andi's parents raised her and her five older siblings in Bensenville, Ill., a section of Chicago. The McCabe household hosted Arizona for dinner the night before a competition against Illinois-Chicago on Jan. 31.

It was in that very athletic family ÷ for more than 20 years, there was always a McCabe running point guard for a local school ÷ where gymnastics was revealed to the youngest sibling. Her older sister Sarah participated in the sport.

As younger siblings do, Andi says she liked to tag along.

"Andi used to mimic what Sarah was doing on the sideline," the McCabes' father, Don, remembers. "The coach said, ÎHey, why don't you put her in?' even though she was only 5."

Her first coach must have been a good judge of talent, as it turned out to be a brilliant decision to have McCabe hit the mats.

"Andi was so hungry for gymnastics, they had to kick her out of the gym at the end of practice," Don said.

The 22-year-old will have many defining moments to remember when she walks away from the mat this season.

McCabe is one of three Arizona seniors leading the highest-scoring gymnastics team in UA history.

McCabe is known to lead by example, throwing down maneuvers and skills that men usually take on, helping her earn the team's Tough as Nails award last season. She has already had one knee surgery and is missing a bone in her hand due to an injury.

"She has that mentality that she's not afraid to put her body on the line. She's almost fearless at times," Ryden said. "A lot of our team follows that lead, like, ÎThose are big tricks, and I want to do big tricks.'"

Coming off a meet at Florida, McCabe has competed in the all-around competition in three consecutive meets. She had not participated in the all-around since her freshman year because of the additional pounding it inflicts on her body. But when her team needed her, she put its needs before her own.

Then again, the great ones do.