Issue link: https://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1208097
47 S ophomore Stewart Brown is a returning All- American for the University of Iowa men's gymnastics team. Despite being bitten by the injury bug last season, Brown is looking to repeat that All-American effort in 2020. Brown, from Taylorsville, North Carolina, had a stellar freshman season in 2019 competing on parallel bars and vault for the Big Ten regular-season champion Hawkeyes. At the 2019 Big Ten Championships, Brown earned a bronze medal on vault with a career-best 14.625, and at his first NCAA final, he placing seventh on the parallel bars with a score of 13.800. Brown accomplished all of this despite being hobbled by injuries. "Stewart is an amazing gymnast," Iowa head coach JD Reive said. "He hasn't been at 100 percent at any point yet. When we get him there, he is really good on a number of things. He's a competitor. He likes to get out and perform and do those things." Injury has been a constant hindrance in Brown's career. In high school, he had a broken scaphoid. Surgeons took bone from his hip to replace part of the scaphoid with a two-inch screw. He has battled a couple of sprained ankles during his time at Iowa. "Gymnastics is a tough sport," Brown said. "Accepting that, doing what I can, and making the most of the season is what I'm pushing for." In his 2020 debut Jan. 18, Brown performed on the vault (13.400), parallel bars (13.750), and rings (13.000) at the Windy City Invitational in Chicago. Reive's goal is to get Brown healthy to be an all- around competitor. "My approach is that we want him to be an all- arounder, we want him to be competing in all the events he should be competing in," Reive said. "He should be All- American again on parallel bars this year, but he has other events where he can do that, too." One of those other events is rings, which has been a tougher event for Brown. Aer getting his first performance out of the way, his nerves have started to ease. "I feel more comfortable now," Brown said. "I think it went well, and as time goes on, I will be more comfortable with it." Brown doesn't believe that the leadership role has fallen directly on his shoulders, however he embraces whatever part he can play to help better the team. "e best way for me to lead is to be consistent, hit sets back-to-back every weekend, and just being as good as possible," Brown said. "at's my biggest leadership role right now. FEBRUARY SCHEDULE Feb. 8 at Oklahoma Feb. 20-21 Winter Cup (Las Vegas)