Courtesy Minnesota Athletics
MINNEAPOLIS – University of Minnesota women’s gymnastics senior Lexy Ramler has been named the winner of the prestigious AAI Award, recognizing the most outstanding senior female gymnast in the country. The award is voted on by NCAA women’s gymnastics head coaches and is considered one of the highest honors given in the sport of women’s gymnastics. Ramler is just the second recipient of the award from the University of Minnesota. Lindsay Mable was the first to receive the honor when she won in 2016.
“It is such an honor to be the recipient of the AAI Award and be included in such an incredible group of athletes,” Ramler said. “There are so many talented individuals in NCAA gymnastics, so to be grouped in this category means so much to me. We have all worked so hard and have had such unique experiences. I am incredibly grateful for this honor.”
Ramler was a finalist along with Alyssa Baumann (Florida), Anastasia Webb (Oklahoma), Lynnzee Brown (Denver), Nia Dennis (UCLA) and Kyana George (California).
Ramler earned the honor after a stellar senior campaign. She has scored a perfect 10 on both vault and beam, and also set a new program record in the all-around with a 39.850. Ramler won 31 event titles this season and was named the Big Ten Gymnast of the Week six times. She ended the year tied for No. 1 in the nation on beam, No. 3 on bars, tied for No. 5 on vault, tied for No. 28 on floor and No. 2 overall in the all-around. Ramler was a Big Ten Champion on bars, beam and in the all-around. She was also awarded with her third-consecutive Big Ten Gymnast of the Year title. Ramler was the Athens Regional All-Around Champion and was recently named an All-American on beam, while also recording second-team honors on bars, vault and in the all-around. At the NCAA National Championships, Ramler tied for 5th on beam, 11th in the all-around, 14th on vault, 17th on bars and 40th on floor.
As one of the most decorated student-athletes in University of Minnesota history, Ramler has amassed more than 1,850 career points. The St. Michael, Minn. native was on pace to make another run at a national title when Covid-19 shortened the 2020 season. Despite the abrupt end to her junior campaign, Lexy had her best season yet. She reached perfection for the first time with a perfect 10 on beam in January. A week after her first perfect 10, she did it again, becoming the first Gopher gymnast to reach perfection in Maturi Pavilion and have multiple perfect 10s in one season. Things continued to come in pairs for Ramler: back-to-back perfect 10s, two-time Region 2 Gymnast of the year, two-time B1G Gymnast of the Week during 2020, and she repeated as the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year.
Ramler finished the 2020 season ranked No. 1 on beam in the nation (9.975 NQS), No. 6 on bars nationally and No. 1 in the B1G (9.935 NQS), No. 8 in the all-around in the NCAA and No.1 in the conference (39.545 NQS) and No. 8 on vault in the Big Ten (9.875 NQS). She won 15 event titles, earned All-Big Ten First Team honors, First Team All-American honors (UB, BB, AA) and was named a Honda Sports Award Finalist for gymnastics.
Outside of the gym, Ramler is double majoring in human resources and entrepreneurial management in the Carlson School of Management.