It wasn't enough for Katie Hornecker to compete gymnastics on the college level and obtain a degree. She had to push the envelope and see how much she could achieve, how much she could take on and be successful. So she came to Alabama, one of the nation's elite gymnastics teams and she picked a degree program that would push her.

She blames it on her brother, Tom, who obtained a Bio-mechanical engineering degree from Marquette University.

"My brother was in engineering and he said that I should try it when I got to college," Hornecker said. "At the time I was interested in going to medical school after college, and I thought I could still do that and take engineering."

Hornecker has lost interest in medical school, but not engineering, not by a long shot. While she won't pick one class as the coolest she's taken, because she's "too busy to think about stuff like that," she can pick the coolest part of her education so far.

"I had to design a toy for a class," Hornecker said. "And I made a toy for one of the children in the RISE program. She couldn't lift her head, so I designed and built a toy that would encourage her to do that, to lift her head. It was really fulfilling to see something I created help someone."

Getting to this point in her career hasn't been easy. Hornecker has had to push herself both in the gym and the classroom. The effort has been worth it though. Last season, the Bloomingdale, Ill., native earned All-American honors on the vault and Scholastic All-American honors in the classroom. In addition to being one of the nation's best vaulters, Hornecker went all-around last season for the first time since her senior year in high school. She was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, as well as Golden Key honor society. She earned Academic All-SEC honors for the second year in a row and was named second team All-SEC in the gym.

For head coach Sarah Patterson, Hornecker is the second engineering student she has had during her 20-plus year career at Alabama. The first, Tina Rinker, was also an All-American. She is now Dr. Rinker, and she teaches engineering at Colorado State University. Patterson is awed by the effort that both women put into their Crimson Tide success.

"Engineering is probably one of the most demanding paths a student-athlete can choose, and we've experienced it twice," Patterson said. "Katie is so far above my head when she talks about her classes, I have to laugh. When the others talk about chemistry, biology, physics, anatomy, I can relate to all those things, but Katie is in a world I've never ventured into. Even the names of her classes are intimidating."

There is something intimidating sounding about classes like Dynamic Machine Components, Propulsion Systems and Fluid Mechanics, but for Hornecker they are old friends. After she finishes her undergraduate degree and Crimson Tide career, she plans on attending graduate school and obtaining a masters degree in either Aerospace, Chemical or Mechanical Engineering. After that the sky is the limit for the gymnast who went into engineering because, "I couldn't imagine doing anything easier."