The ankle was black as coal and swollen to about twice its size and Austin gymnast Abby Bickler was in crutches. The state meet was three days away.

Some athletes would’ve been sulking and pouting. Not Bickler, she was too busy doing ice treatment three times a day and encouraging her state-qualifying teammates to be thinking about self pity. The eighth-grader was going to perform her floor routine at the state meet no matter what, even though she had a high ankle sprain at the Section 1A meet just a few days ago.

Unfortunately, Bickler’s ankle was too much for her to overcome. Despite being cleared medically, she wasn’t able to tumble on at state and she had to settle for a jog-through return that didn’t feature any tumbling.

“She’s a tough kid and she fought hard, but it didn’t quite heal in time,” Austin head coach Mark Raymond said. “We rested the ankle all week and waited until the last minute to try it, but it wasn’t enough.”

As Bickler competed she drew a standing ovation from the other competitors in her section, but it probably didn’t take away the pain from missing state, especially when her friend and teammate Carolyn Hackel was bitten by the injury bug as well.

Hackel wasn’t able to tumble much all week due to a broken toe and it caught up to her after she started her floor routine very strong. On one of her bigger jumps, she took a fall and that sealed her fate with the judges.

“Carolyn has some big passes and it’s tough to do them without a lot of practice,” Raymond said. “Ultimately both of those girls were not able to represent themselves they way they are, but they’ll get another shot. They’re both top-10 gymnasts in the state when healthy.”

In fact, before Saturday had even passed, both girls were saying they wished they could get in the gym on Monday.

While Hackel and Bickler had a tough state meet debut, I think they’ll be just fine in the long run.