On a team with only two victories, it’s usually hard to find any outstanding individual… On a team with only two victories, it’s usually hard to find any outstanding individual efforts.

That wasn’t the case with junior gymnast Raya Mullin this year, and as a result, she has been named Female Athlete of the Spring in voting by the Pitt News sports staff.

The Panthers went 2-18 and lost 17 consecutive matches over the last nine meets of the season, but Mullin led the team on two events throughout most of the year.

Mullin, from Runnemede, N.J., had 13 top-three finishes in meets this year, including several first-place scores.

But despite these accomplishments, she was surprised to hear she won the award.

“Wow, that’s kind of cool,” Mullin said. “I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

Mullin, the second winner in the short history of the award, follows Chantee Earl, last year’s recipient.

“I did pretty good on two of my three events,” Mullin said. “Those were bars and floor, but I just wasn’t consistent enough on the beam.”

She opened the season with a second place score on bars in a meet against Brown University and East Atlantic Gymnastics League champion West Virginia. She also tied for third on the balance beam in the meet against some tough competition.

Mullin got her first first-place finish the week after, on Jan. 20 at James Madison, with a 9.775 on bars. Her 9.7 on the balance beam was good enough for second place in the meet.

The Panthers were 2-1 at that point, but the remaining schedule was tough and they didn’t register another victory. But that didn’t keep Mullin down.

She finished in second place on the bars in meets against New Hampshire, Illinois and Michigan State. She added first-place finishes at Western Michigan and at home against Kent State.

Her 9.825 score at that meet as well as against Penn State on Feb. 3 topped her previous career high of 9.8, set twice the previous year.

“I wanted to contribute as much as I could to the team, and I just wish we could have had a little more success,” Mullin said.

Mullin also tied a career-high on the floor exercise with a 9.8 at Western Michigan on Feb. 18.

As a co-captain of the team, she and senior Becky Doll provided leadership to a young team.

“It was a bit difficult because we had five freshmen competing and two sophomores that hadn’t really competed last year,” Mullin said. “We had to keep our confidence up and keep a good attitude.”

“Raya is a great leader,” said head coach Debbie Yohman earlier in the season. “She sets a good example for her teammates by what she does on the events in meets as well as in practice.”

After learning from many of the six seniors who graduated from the 2000 team, Mullin was thrust into a veteran role and responded well.

In 12 meets on the uneven parallel bars, including the NCAA Regionals meet in which she qualified, Mullin scored between a 9.75 and a 9.875 every time. Her average of just over a 9.8 is the highest single-season average by a Pitt gymnast on bars in the 27-year history of the team.

Samantha Salyers, a 2000 graduate and holder of eight of Pitt’s top 11 individual scores on the bars, never averaged above a 9.8 in her four seasons of competition.

“It was a lot more fun last year when we won more, and I was able to learn from the seniors, but we never gave up this year,” Mullin said. “Personally, I felt I did well, but I know I can always get better.”

Mullin is looking forward to her senior season already, but tendinitis in her shoulder is forcing her to take it slow.

“It nagged me all season, but I can get it healthy now and come back stronger for next year,” Mullin said. “We should be a lot better.”