St. Charles, Missouri is home to Lindenwood University, a liberal arts college that was founded back in 1827 and is located just 30 minutes from St. Louis. Though the university itself is quite old, their gymnastics program is on the younger side. In 2011, Lindenwood became the first school in 10 years to add women’s gymnastics to its athletics portfolio. 2013 was the team’s first season, when they finished in 63rd place nationally with an impressive 191.365 team RQS. In their second season, the Lady Lions earned a team bid to the USAG Women’s Collegiate National Championships. Now, in their third season, the Lindenwood team has continued to improve, currently ranking 50th nationally with a 194.200 average.

The Lady Lions are a Division II team competing in the MIC conference under head coach Jen Kesler, a former Oregon State gymnast. Kesler was a graduate assistant at Lindenwood before taking over the Head Coach position after the program’s first year. She recently took some time to speak to Gymnastike about Lindenwood and how the team has shaped itself over the last few years.

“We want girls who are interested in joining a place that is unlike anywhere else,” Kesler explained, saying that she looks for gymnasts who are willing to work hard, both in the classroom and in the gym, and who are dedicated to building a team culture. Lindenwood are able to fill 6 fully funded scholarship positions which can be paired with academic scholarships.

Valeri Ingui is currently a junior and was part of the inaugural team. She was drawn to Lindenwood by its top notch academics, small class sizes and beautiful campus, in addition to contributing to the university’s gymnastics program. “I thought that being at Lindenwood would provide a great opportunity to be a part of history and make an impact on the gymnastics community,” she says, adding that Lindenwood is a fun and rewarding team to compete with given the dedication of each gymnast on the floor. Ingui adds that her goals for the remainder of her time at Lindenwood are to help the team to be as successful as they can be. “Nothing is ever fun to do by yourself,” she notes, “We have so much talent and drive on our team. I think going into next year, our goal would be to win a title at nationals. We are hosting nationals next year and that would be something great to do in front of our home crowd.”

Last year, the Lady Lions narrowly missed advancing to the finals of the Women’s Collegiate National Championships, which Kesler said was a great learning experience for the team. “I think we shocked a lot of people, and we shocked ourselves, but it was good fuel for fire for the next year.”

Lindenwood’s most recent big success was in a meet at Southeast Missouri, where theteamachieved their best score in program history with a 194.700 against Missouri and Southeast Missouri. Lindenwood finished 2nd, beating defending MIC Champions, SEMO. “In the big picture, it was a huge confidence booster,” Kesler said, “We’re going into bigger meets knowing we have a ton of potential and that we’re capable of reaching that potential.”

As far as goals go, Kesler said the team has little goals for each year - this year, they would like to send a couple girls to NCAA Regionals. Fortunately, the team has already had a lot of firsts, including beating Division I teams, receiving conference awards and MIC Gymnast of the Week awards. Longer term, their 3 biggest goals are vying for an NCAA Regional spot, winning a national title, and winning a conference championship. “We have girls who have the desire to push themselves to get there, and it really all starts with that. It starts with the heart and the desire to push themselves to get there.” Until then, she said, it’s just about putting in the hard work and taking those baby steps to get there.

This Saturday, Lindenwood competes at the MIC Championships in Texas where they will face Texas Woman’s, Centenary, Illinois-Chicago, Illinois-State and Southeast Missouri. Be sure to check out how the Lady Lions perform via the live feed at Texas Woman’s site here at 4:00pm CT. Lindenwood has made huge strides in their first three years - they will certainly be a team to watch going forward.