Seniors Jordan Sexton and Sarah Curtis have a lot in common.

Both athletes suffered season-ending injures early in their freshman year for the Michigan women's gymnastics team in 2007. Now, both gymnasts are back as fifth-year seniors and are just as much a part of the competition as ever.

In a sport like gymnastics, where it’s often harder to compete at a high level when the years in the gym start adding up, Curtis and Sexton have proven their endurance by improving from their first year at Michigan to the present. Between them, the two gymnasts have accumulated numerous All-Big Ten, All-American and Big Ten Gymnast of the Week honors.

Curtis has competed in all four events — balance beam, vault, uneven bars and the floor — as a Wolverine, meaning her body has seen a lot more wear-and-tear than most gymnasts. Despite this strain, Curtis felt prepared to commit to another year at Michigan.

“I think that I felt the best of my four years (during) my senior year,” Curtis said.

That was clear in the 2010 Big Ten Championships, where she was runner-up in floor and beam exercises as well as the all-around competition.

Sexton, a Weddington, NC native, has been having her best season yet. But that doesn’t mean the success has come easily to her.

“My body doesn’t recover quite as quick as it used to, but the coaches have been really great about working with quality over quantity,” Sexton said.

With a mindset tuned to her physical needs, Sexton has been able to secure scores placing her at the top in the team’s recent meets against New Hampshire and Iowa.

Both gymnasts admitted that their early-career injuries shook their confidence, though.

“Whenever you get a serious injury like that, you have a lot of doubt,” Curtis said, “But the mental process of trying to get your body back into it again, it almost makes you stronger because you have more confidence in yourself after that.”

Both Curtis and Sexton took a whole year after their injuries to fully recover from their surgeries. For the pair, it wasn’t until their junior years that they really found their stride in collegiate competition, and both athletes quickly demonstrated their competitive force in 2009. Sexton won runner-up on beam at the NCAA Regional Championships and was awarded Academic All-Big Ten, while Curtis was named to both the Academic All-Big Ten as well as the All-Big Ten First Team.

With seven freshmen on the team this year and five girls graduating after this season, Sexton acknowledges the pros and cons of having a program that is “both bottom-heavy and top-heavy.” There are no juniors currently on the team.

But she is not too worried about the implications of a young team for next year, since she believes that the program is only getting stronger, and that another great incoming freshman class next year will add “a whole new dimension to the team.”