Growing up, Maren Eramo was one of the best young gymnasts in Haverhill.
In high school, she took it to another level, ranking among the best in the Merrimack Valley, while becoming a two-time Eagle-Tribune All-Star and holder of four school records.
On Sunday, she took it to an All-American level … for a second time.
The State University of New York-Bridgeport (SUNY) senior was named an All-American for the second straight year after being crowned the co-champion of the vault during the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Division 3 Championship meet at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Penn.
But her story, between her high school and college exploits, is not what’s most inspiring.
In fact, Maren doesn’t recall part of that story, from Dec. 15, 2021. She doesn’t remember being on the phone and asking her father the worst possible question a child could ever ask.
“Dad, am I going to die,”?
At that time, no one knew the answer.
Not the doctors.
Not Maren.
Not her mother — who immediately hopped on a plane to meet her daughter at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.
And certainly not her father, who was on the other end of the line not knowing if that conversation was his last with his youngest of three daughters.
“No one knew because it was such an intense and pretty complicated surgery,” said Maren. “The doctors told my parents that it could lead to death, but obviously that wasn’t what they were hoping for. I was definitely scared. I was alone.”
Two weeks before that phone call, Maren was fine-tuning her vault routine during a practice.
“I came off the board and didn’t flip or twist and I ended up falling and hitting my head,” she said. “I probably had a concussion but I felt fine. I hit my head many times over the years and this didn’t feel any different. I kept competing in practices and a meet and was fine for the next two weeks. Then one day at practice, I started to get all of these symptoms – I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear and I was vomiting.”
She was immediately taken for a CT scan which revealed a subdural hematoma.
“My surgeon said that hit in the head two weeks prior is when the brain bleed started,” explained Maren, “and over time, it just opened up again. That (Dec. 15) practice, it just opened up fully and that’s why I started to experience all of those symptoms.”
All of those symptoms went away after the successful emergency brain surgery was completed.
“Quite honestly, I don’t remember a lot of it,” she said. “I just remember not being able to open one of my eyes. It just hurt because of the pressure. I just remember telling myself to keep my eye closed. I just remember the doctor saying that I did so well especially for the brain bleed that I had. All of limbs were perfectly fine – my feet were working fine. They told my parents that it was incredible that I was still talking (at the time) and was actively moving around.”
Moving around didn’t mean flips and twists. It meant a full recovery for a year.
Gymnastics was completely out of the equation.
And the year before that, the Golden Eagles gymnastics season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Coming back after the year of recovery was definitely scary. I needed some time and I didn’t really have time because we had competition before I knew it,” she said. “Thoughts were just flooding through my head with a lot of what-ifs, but I kept competing and kept gaining my confidence back. I knew deep down that’s what I wanted to do was to come back.”
She made a full recovery and returned to the mat last year, leading the Golden Eagles to a 15-3 dual meet season and the team’s third straight NCGA East Region Championship. Individually, she finished eighth on the vault to earn All-American honors for the first time.
This season, the record improved to 16-1 and the team won its fourth straight East Region title and finished fourth in the entire country.
And this time Eramo nearly perfected a “yurchenko full” vault, earning a 9.825 score, good enough to share the top mark in the country for Division 3.
“I tried (the yurchenko full) one time during high school and then only really started training for it last year,” she said. “When you are first learning it, it’s all about your air awareness, knowing where you are in the air and how high you have to go in order to be able to twist and land correctly without hurting your ankles or landing too far back. Timing is a big part of it and that’s something you really need to train and learn. Landing it is definitely not an easy thing to do.”
Compared to what she dealt with two years earlier, that landing was a piece of cake.
“It’s definitely a miracle. I’m so fortunate that everything went the way it went. I’m not sure why the accident happened to me but I’m blessed that I have a second chance and get to do what I love. I am definitely very proud of myself,” she said. “I look back and I’m in awe that (my accident) actually happened. It is in the past and it’s something you don’t like or want to think about, but when that does happen and it’s like, “Wow, I overcame that?”
Eramo is a communications major and has applied for the master’s program at SUNY Brockport. If she gets in, she’ll bring back her leotard one more time. If not, she leaves the way she came to New York four years ago: No. 1.
“I just wanted to give it my all (on Sunday) because I don’t know if I’ll be back next year,” she said. “I’m happy with my performance and happy knowing that I’m a national champion. That’s pretty cool to say.”