Jen Kesler understands consistency, competition

Jen Kesler joined the Oregon State gymnastics team at the right time.

For some programs, the expectations would be high right away for an athlete of Kesler’s caliber.

After all, she is a two-time all-around Junior Olympics national champion at level 10.

“Obviously, she’s one of the top recruits that we’ve had, because to win JO nationals two years in a row, it takes a very special person to do that,” OSU coach Tanya Chaplin said. “Once we got her here and really started working with her, we saw those traits that produced those national championships.”

With an experienced roster and three All-Americans in Tasha Smith, Jami Lanz and Mandi Rodriguez, Kesler has the opportunity to grow into her role with the Beavers.

In her first meet with the team two weeks ago, Kesler competed on two of the four events, scoring a 9.775 on bars and a 9.725 on beam. She has gotten her floor routine finalized and is expected to join the rotation for tonight’s meet against Washington.

“Jen’s anchoring bars and she’s doing great on beam and she’s working her way back on floor and vault and I have complete confidence that she’ll get there. It just takes time,” Smith, a former club teammate of Kesler, said. “When you’re a freshman, it’s hard to get used to the ropes and how things are. When she gets used to things, she’ll be fine.”

The meet had a familiar feel to Kesler.

“It wasn’t like a normal college meet, I guess, because it was in a club setting,” Kesler said. “So it kind of felt like I was back in club again, but it was still really fun because the team energy was really exciting. Everyone was yelling and screaming. I know I had a good time.”

Kesler started the sport when she was 2 and caught on right away. She joined a program at a daycare center and played on a makeshift balance beam at home.

At first, it was a good way to burn off extra energy. As she got older, Kesler realized how much she thrived on competition.

And she had the talent.

By the time she was a junior in high school, her club coach was convinced she had the capability of winning the national title at level 10. She went into that first meet with the mentality that she was going to win, and she did.

Then she did it again the next year.

“I knew if I just hit everything that I would potentially be a champion,” she said. “The second time, I did it once before and I’ve gotten better since last year, so I knew in the back of my head that I could possibly do it again. So that was my goal.”

Those titles attracted quite a bit of attention from college coaches. Kesler was recruited by Washington, Arizona State, Arizona, Oklahoma, Iowa and Oregon State.

“After I won junior year, that’s the recruiting year, so a lot of other coaches from around came in and started talking to my coach and wanted to come in the gym and look at me,” she said.

She already knew about the Beavers.

“We watched her for a long time,” Chaplin said. “I think she actually came on an unofficial visit her sophomore year after a competition she had here at the coast at Newport. So we got to know her a little bit then and we were really on top of her (during) her junior year.”

Kesler said it was an easy decision because she had heard so many good things about OSU’s program and the Beavers did not waver on her through the years.

She decided to come to Corvallis.

“This was the first real program I looked at and I’ve never been hesitant since,” she said.

The biggest difference Kesler noticed between club and college gymnastics is the competition for lineup spots. The Beavers have so much talent this season that no position is safe.

Her strong work ethic comes in handy every practice.

“Here you have to work hard every day and get your stuff done or else you won’t make lineup,” she said. “With the depth that we have, it pushes you every day, so it’s different in that sense. In club, they weren’t doing it for a specific purpose, but here you’re doing it because you want to do so well and so everyone’s in it together.”