Senior Nolan Levy has been in gymnastics since he was a toddler, but as high school nears its end, Levy looks to the next step. After several months of a competitive recruitment process, Levy committed to the University of Iowa for men’s gymnastics.

“I started gymnastics a long, long time ago,” Levi said. “My mom put me in a class when I was 3 and I stuck with it since then.”

Levy competes at gymnastics meets. With meet season spanning from December until May, Levy said he spends a lot of time practicing at the gym.

“[The] summer schedule is different than the school schedule,” Levy said. “In summer, I practiced three and a half hours a day, Monday-Friday, and during school it’s closer to three hours.”

There are fewer than 30 men’s gymnastics programs in the country, so recruitment is competitive. Levy said he considered stepping away from gymnastics, specifically in pursuit of the Army.

“I’ve known about [Iowa’s program] for a while because there are so few teams,” Levy said. “I actually talked to [the] Army, but I loved my visit to Iowa, so I decided it was the right fit.”

Levy said the recruitment process is long and tedious, and a lot is dependent on social media presence. Levy said he has spent time growing his gymnastics account (@nolangynmnastics) to garner college teams’ attention.

“A lot of the recruitment [process] is through social media,” Levi said. “I post any time I gain a new skill, so the schools see that and make decisions on their teams based on the accounts.”

Now that he’s committed to the University of Iowa, Levy said he can finally relax knowing he’s secured a spot on a highly coveted team.

“It was a long and stressful recruitment process, but I’m glad I found the right fit,” Levy said.