Columbus North’s Lindsey Mullis competes on the vault in the Conference Indiana meet at Columbus North, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.
The Republic file photo
After undergoing knee surgery last April, Lindsey Mullis wasn’t sure how much she would be able to do during her senior gymnastics season.
The Columbus North standout had little reason to be worried. She has been a consistent scorer in all four events for the Bull Dogs, who will compete in Friday’s Franklin Central Regional.
“It’s definitely a lot more stressful, but I’m a lot stronger, so it’s been a little easier to get all my skills back,” Mullis said. “I didn’t do much in the offseason because I was just coming back from having surgery. But when I got back, I worked on my consistency with a lot of things, and I got it back up there. I’ve definitely done a couple things I never would have thought I’d be able to do again after surgery.”
That included doing the vault and performing tumbling on the floor exercise.
“Lindsey has been a steady person to have on each event this year,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “She’s been working really hard inside and outside of the gym. She has mental toughness, and she did a lot of rehab so she could get back and come back stronger than she was the year before. We knew Lindsey was definitely capable of doing that. It was just seeing how she recovered from her knee surgery.”
Columbus North’s Lindsey Mullis competes on the beam in the Conference Indiana meet at Columbus North, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.
The Republic file photo
Mullis missed the regular season last year because of a hairline fracture in the tibia of her left leg and a torn meniscus. She was scheduled to undergo surgery prior to the sectional, but had to postpone because she was in COVID protocol.
Doctors cleared Mullis to compete on the bars in the sectional since the bars is the one event that requires only one landing. She finished second in the sectional, then competed on bars again at regional and state prior to having the surgery.
“She stayed in shape all of last year,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “The only thing she couldn’t do with her leg being in the situation it was was handle a lot of impact, so that pretty much pulled her out of vault, beam and floor. So she continued to work bars as hard as she could. We were real fortunate that she was able to help us out last year on bars because we were needing someone in that spot.”
Mullis tried practicing a couple of times last summer before joining the team for full workouts after school began.
“It was definitely a lot of basic work to get my knee built back up because I was still doing physical therapy a couple days a week,” Mullis said. “It’s a little sore here and there, but I think it’s almost 100 percent.”
Having done gymnastics since age 3, Mullis wasn’t ready to give up the sport.
“It was kind of iffy,” Mullis said. “My mom really wanted me to do my senior year because I had done it for a really long time. She wanted me to end it right.”
“It really doesn’t surprise me,” Arthur added. “Mentally, she’s wanted to get back into the game as an all-arounder. She worked awfully hard. She’s been one of the harder-working kids. The overcoming adversity from last year is a wonderful thing to see and sometimes rare because a lot of people can just crumble and get out.”
Mullis has been a solid No. 2 gymnast behind sophomore Reese Euler on all four events this season. She finished second on the bars and tied for ninth in the all-around in Friday’s Franklin Central Sectional.
“Lindsey has been a good leader this year,” Rediker said. “She’s been our captain for the year. She’s been running warmups at the beginning of practice, and she’s been doing a lot of our communication.”
After graduation, Mullis plans to attend IUPUC and pursue a bachelor’s in chemistry, then go to medical school.
Mullis is performing at her best as her career winds to a close. She put up the best all-around score of her career, a 36.7, to finish second in the all-around and help the Bull Dogs to a Conference Indiana title to close the regular season.
“I’ve definitely improved,” Mullis said. “I didn’t see myself getting as far as I have. Some of the skills I never thought I would do are coming along, and they’re getting really clean. It’s been a good experience.”
