BOISE – Emily Lopez didn’t place in the first meet she ever did.
“I just ran to my mom and started bawling,” said the Boise State fifth-year gymnast with a laugh. “I was like, ‘When am I going to medal?’
“So maybe that lit a fire under my butt or something.”
It appears so.
Lopez is about to leave as one of the most-decorated gymnasts in Boise State history. She ranks in the top-10 all-time in career wins in not, not two, but three different events. It’s highlighted by her being tied with Lindsay Ward for the second-most career uneven bars wins at 20 and counting. Lopez also owns the highest uneven bar score in school history with a perfect 10.000 – more on that later.
She’ll look to add to that historic resume at the NCAA Regional Championships at 1 p.m. Thursday. The Broncos will compete in the Salt Lake Regional against UCLA, Minnesota and Southern Utah at the Jon M Huntsman Center.
“She’s just a special kid,” said Boise State head coach Tina Bird trying to hold back tears. “Irreplaceable, in more ways than one. She definitely left her mark.”
Lopez came to Boise State from Wildfire Gymnastics out of Tustin, California. There, she got the Broncos’ attention by winning the beam title at the Southern California State Championships and taking sixth in the all-around at the 2019 Junior Olympic Nationals.
“That’s where Boise State found me,” said Lopez of the 2019 Junior Olympic Nationals. “I felt like that was probably one of my best meets. I was really proud of that because I was competing against the best girls in the nation.
“Afterwards, the head coach at the time at Boise State, he went up to my club coaches and was like, ‘We really like this girl. We want to bring her in on a visit.’ So that was very memorable for me.”
So much so that Lopez chose the Broncos over the likes of Washington, BYU and Arizona State.
“We got really lucky,” Bird said.
Lopez’s first career title came in the uneven bars at Utah State on Feb. 13, 2021. She went on to become a two-time All-Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference first-teamer before breaking out junior year.
It started on Feb. 17, 2023 when Lopez made history.
On Senior Night of all nights against BYU, she recorded just the fifth perfect 10.000 score overall and the first in the uneven bars in program history. Fellow Boise State greats Ciera Perkins, Krystine Jacobsen, Emily Muhlenhaupt, Courtney McGregor and Alexis Stokes were all tied for the uneven bar record at 9.975 prior to that unforgettable evening.
“I felt like that was a good routine. I felt like that’s what I usually do in the gym and practice. So when I landed and I looked over and I saw one 10, I was like, ‘What the heck?’ And then I looked over and I saw the other one and I immediately just fell to the ground and started crying,” Lopez said. “I just couldn’t believe it. I think I blacked out a little bit because there was just so much going on.
“I had a hard time sleeping that night. You work so hard all season, your whole life really, to become perfect. And that’s like the goal of every gymnast. So when you finally get it, it’s just like this relieving feeling. It was a day I’ll never, ever forget for sure.”
Bird added that it’s her favorite moment of Lopez’s career.
“It’s not just because she broke the record, but it was when she landed that and that score went up, it was all of ours. It wasn’t just hers,” Bird said. “So that was really a cool moment and she shared that with everybody. It was so emotional for all of us.”
Lopez followed that up by being named both the MRGC Bars and Co-Vault Specialists of the Year. She then capped the banner season by becoming a two-time All-American in the uneven bars. Lopez was a regular season second-team All-American before tying for 18th at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships for second-team All-American honors there.
“I always felt like I had that potential,” Lopez said. “I feel like bars always came naturally to me growing up. So finally putting it all together and having confidence in myself and just seeing it all come together, was really awesome.”
Last year was anything but, though.
While Lopez was the inaugural Mountain West Conference Gymnast of the Year and the Mountain West Bars Specialist of the Year, she was far from 100%. She had a cyst on her right hand, which caused some ligament damage. It all ended up coming to a head at NCAA Regionals of all places.
Lopez competed in the uneven bars that first day in the head-to-head against BYU. She finished third with a score of 9.800. But Lopez had to pull out the following day during the individual round after being unable to even grip the bar anymore during warmups. It was only the third time all season that she missed a routine.
“It was hard to watch her go through that because it was out of her control. She didn’t have the grip strength. And when she was like, ‘I can’t do it, we knew she couldn’t do it,’” Bird said. “It was just frustrating because she always wants to give her best and she’s not a kid that will ever back down.”
She did still compete in the balance beam, carding a 9.725. But it wasn’t quite enough for a return trip to nationals.
Lopez had to have surgery immediately upon her return to Boise.
“I ended the season not too happy,” Lopez said. “When you get injured, you’re not doing your best or as well as you think you can, it kind of messes with you a little bit. I feel like my confidence was down a little more last year. But I am definitely in a much better place this year and feeling better about my gymnastics and myself.”
It has certainly shown in her fifth and COVID year.
Lopez has racked up 12 event titles, including a career-high seven in the uneven bars alone. It’s tied for the third-most in a single-season in program history. If Lopez were to win both regional and national championships in the uneven bars, it would tie Muhlenhaupt for the most all-time in school history.
She also won four times in vault and once in the balance beam, which catapulted her into the top-10 all-time for both events. Lopez is currently tied with Perkins for the fifth-most wins (12) in the vault. She is tied for ninth all-time in balance beam wins (7) with both Johnna Evans and Lindsay Kazandjian.
Lopez was nominated for the American Athletic, Inc. (AAI) Award that recognizes the top senior female gymnast in the nation for dedication, leadership and excellence in the sport. She is one of just 59 athletes up for the award, which is one of the most prestigious awards in women’s gymnastics.
And Lopez just became the 10th Bronco ever to win multiple event titles at a conference meet. She was both the vault and bars co-champions at the Mountain West Championships on March 22.
“Absolutely,” said Bird when asked if Lopez is one of the best Boise State gymnastics of all time. “But she would never say that. She’s really humble. “We’ve been saying this for five years, if I had 12 of her, my job would be so easy and we’d be winning titles.
“Emily’s one that several times this year on beam, I catch myself just kind of tearing up in a meet. Because she’s just amazing.”
Perhaps even more impressive, is that Lopez has never missed a single meet.
She’s still found a way to always compete despite multiple ankle injuries, which is what kept her out of the floor exercise and competing in the all-around. Lopez has also been dealing with a bulge in her neck for the last three years.
“I’m tough,” Lopez said. “Even with pain and injuries, I still wanna go out there for my team and do whatever I can to help us succeed and do well.”
Lopez will look to do that at least one more time Thursday.
Boise State will be competing at regionals for the 17th year in a row. You’d have to go all the way back to 2007 for the last time the Broncos missed out.
“I hadn’t really thought about it before until somebody asked me about that a while ago. It’s just kind of what we do,” said Bird of the streak. “But when you think about it, that’s really cool because not a lot of programs can do that. So even though that is kind of the expectation for us, it’s still pretty special.”
The Broncos will now seek their first-ever NCAA National Championship appearance. But they’re going to have their work cut out for them in order to do so.
Boise State is the lowest ranked team in the field at 30th. Its group has not one, but two teams who are ranked top-10 in the nation. UCLA is fifth and Minnesota, which made it to the regional finals a year ago, is 10th. And Southern Utah is ranked 24th. But the Broncos did split with the Thunderbirds during the regular season.
“I definitely think they can do it. It would just come down to everybody having to have their very best performance all at the same time,” Bird said. “I feel like the stars are kind of aligned with our bracket this year. This is a really good bracket for us. It’s not going to be easy. Every team is really good. It’s just going to come down, does the team believe it?”
Lopez certainly does.
Not only in the team, but in everything she has been able to do in her storied career.
“My freshman year, our regionals were in Salt Lake and now my fifth year, it’s in Salt Lake again. So it kind of feels like a little full-circle moment there,” she said. “I feel like I’ve grown so much from coming in as a little 18-year old and now I’m 23. Gymnastics teaches you so many life lessons. You’re gonna fall a lot, but you have to remember to get back up and go again.
“So I’m just really proud of everything I’ve accomplished. I’m just very grateful for the opportunity and I’m just gonna remember it for the rest of my life.”
