College Career
From 2004 to 2008, Schwikert was a member of the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team, competing on a full athletic scholarship. Schwikert's younger sister, Jordan, was also a Bruin. She and Tasha opted to enter UCLA at the same time, and thus were in the same graduating class.
In Schwikert's first year of competition for the UCLA Bruins gymnastics team, she won the NCAA National all-around title. She was the only gymnast in 2005 to earn first-team All-American honors on all four events. Schwikert was sidelined for most of the 2005–2006 season due to a shoulder injury requiring surgery, but remained a student at UCLA and a member of the team. Schwikert returned to the UCLA floor and vault lineup for the Pac-10 Championships in late March, and continued to compete on a limited basis for the rest of the season. While UCLA did not qualify for the 2006 NCAA Nationals as a team, Schwikert qualified as an individual and competed on vault, finishing eleventh in the preliminary round.
Recovered from her injury, Schwikert ended the 2006-2007 season as one of the top collegiate gymnasts in the nation. She won the PAC-10 all-around title for the second time in her career, picking up additional gold medals on the floor exercise, balance beam and vault, and was named the PAC-10 and West Region Gymnast of the Year. She also won the all-around title at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships. At the NCAA Women's Gymnastics championship in April, Schwikert was the only gymnast from UCLA to win an individual award, earning second on the uneven bars. She was the only gymnast in the nation to rank in the Top 15 on all four individual events, as well as the all-around, and was a nominee for the Honda Award.
Schwikert completed her senior year as one of the strongest gymnasts on the Bruins team. At the 2008 NCAA National Championships, she won her second all-around title and placed first on uneven bars, second on floor, and eighth on vault.
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