Gymnast Pascual inspires Terps
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Mandy Pascual wears a protective boot on her pain-racked right ankle and foot, which were operated on three times last year, until the lights go up at the University of Maryland's new Comcast Center.
Then she removes her boot, takes center stage, and performs stunning routines on the uneven parallel bars for the Terps' gymnastics team.
Last Saturday night, Pascual tied the school record on the bars with a score of 9.925 — that's 75/1,000ths of a point away from perfection.
"She has the opportunity to score a 10 on bars," Maryland coach Bob Nelligan says.
Pascual, a 2001 Punahou School graduate from 'Aiea, fractured the navicular bone on the top of her foot and her ankle was dislocated during a performance at the Punahou Carnival in her senior year.
She said her biggest thrill in gymnastics was when Maryland gave her a scholarship. But she could not compete in her freshman season because two pins were inserted in her right ankle on Jan. 9, 2002, after the fracture showed up in an MRI.
The pins "didn't work," Pascual said, and they were taken out last May 23 and bone marrow from her shin was injected into her foot. A third operation on July 19 "cleaned out junk that had collected," she said.
Pascual was on crutches for 10 weeks last year and has worn the boot, which is like a walking cast, ever since.
Until her practices and meets start.
"She has come back in a huge fashion," coach Nelligan said.
"She is aggressive, has a beautiful body line, and pays incredible attention to detail. Her technique is absolutely gorgeous to watch," Nelligan said.
"You would never have a sense of how difficult uneven bars can be when you watch her work."
The arthritic pain "makes it hurt to walk on my foot on some really bad days," Pascual says, but "I don't think about it when I'm performing. I think about my routine."
Nelligan says Pascual could also be scoring in the vault, but "her foot is so painful that we would run the risk of losing her 9.9 on bars. It's a no-brainer. I'll take the 9.9 any day.
"I respect her need to do more than one event, but we have to be positive and patient," Nelligan says.
Pascual sighs, "Hopefully next season I can do more events."
EXTRA FLIPS: Mandy Pascual is pursuing a double major of chemical engineering and biochemistry. She said her grade-point average dropped from 4.0 to 3.95 when she got a B-plus last summer in a seminar for an honors citation. ... Pascual and Cornell wrestling All-American Travis Lee were classmates through the sixth grade at Ma'ema'e School. They were Ma'ema'e's representatives in the DOE's Kid Fit competition at Aloha Stadium.
