Sarah Curtis figured she’d never get a chance to compete in Gill Coliseum as a college gymnast.

Curtis grew up in Corvallis and went to the Oregon State meets. Like many young gymnasts in the area, Curtis dreamed of taking to the competition floor on Ralph Miller Court.

When she decided to sign with University of Michigan, Curtis was resigned to the probability that the Wolverines would not come to Corvallis.

“With our schedule and being in the East, we don’t have a lot of meets in the West,” Curtis said.

As fate would have it, the Wolverines wound up in the NCAA West Regional, which is Saturday at Oregon State. In Gill Coliseum.

Curtis will get her chance after all.

She expects some friends and family at the meet, cheering her on.

“I don’t have any idea how many will come and I don’t know how many will be in orange and black of how many will be in maize and blue,” she said. “But it won’t matter.”

She’ll be happy just to be back in Corvallis for a few days. She does get back to Oregon, but stays in the Portland area with her mother.

She did stop by over Christmas break to say “hi” to OSU coach Tanya Chaplin. But most of her time has been spent in school in Ann Arbor or in Reno with her uncle, where she moved for her final two years of high school due to family matters.

When it came time to choose a school, Curtis wanted to keep her options open.

She had been to Oregon State and made a trip to Stanford, but had not checked out a school in the eastern part of the United States, so in August before her senior year, Curtis got on a plane and headed to North Carolina, Alabama and a final leg to Michigan.

Ann Arbor was her final trip and she was quickly sold on the Wolverines. She said Michigan had the whole package she was looking for. She loved the campus, clicked with her future teammates, was amazed by the facilities and liked the tradition of athletics along with the strong academics.

“I had kind of that gut feeling that I was home already, although I wasn’t here yet,” she said.

Still, it was a tough decision not to come to OSU. She was close to the Chaplins and spent most of her life in the area.

“I talked to Michael and Tanya throughout my recruiting process,” Curtis said. “They helped me through the whole thing. I think they knew there was not a guarantee that I was going there. When I committed to Michigan, Michael was the first person I called.”

The decision has worked out just fine, though it took a while for Curtis to really hit her stride.

Curtis was hobbled with an Achilles’ tendon injury last year and said this has been the first time she’s really been able to make it all the way through a season.

Now that she’s healthy, Curtis has made quite an impact. She hit her stride on Feb. 16 at home against Minnesota. Curtis won bars with a 9.950 and floor with a 9.925 and took first in all-around with a 39.425.

A few meets later she led the Wolverines to an upset of top-ranked Georgia by winning the all-around with a season-high 39.600. She won vault with a 9.950, tied for first on floor with a 9.900 and tied for second on beam with a 9.900.

Curtis did so well against the Bulldogs that she was chosen to be in the Sports Illustrated’s Faces In the Crowd feature in the April 7 issue, although her hometown was listed as Reno.

In the Big Ten meet, she scored a 9.950 on bars to win the conference title and finished second in all-around with a 39.450.

“It’s been great,” she said. “It’s a completely different feeling that you get when you’re incorporating something to that instead of sitting on the sideline. It’s a good feeling.”

Now she’ll be able to showcase her abilities for the fans at OSU. She’s not worried about the fans turning on her because she won’t be competing in the orange and black.

“They’re not the same colors I’m sure people expected me to be wearing,” she said. “But I don’t have any fears of not being acknowledged because of who I am, because Gill is always supportive of everyone.”