Springfield, Mass. – March 9, 2018 – The National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) is excited to highlight the fifth of seven former student-athletes to be inducted into the NCGA Hall of Fame in 2018, Sonja Ellefson, 2001 graduate of MIT.
Ellefson ’01 joins six other inductees including Gina Gutierrez ’02 of Springfield College, Bartyzel Consolati ’96, Sandra Picciocio Givas ’87 and Cynthia Chiolo Walsh ’87 of Ithaca, Sulekha Modi Zaug ’00 of Cortland and Jumaah Johnson Goldberg ’02 of Ursinus.
Ellefson ’01 competed at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. from 1998-2001, where she helped but the Engineers on the Division III women’s gymnastics landscape with her impressive performances over the course of her career. As a freshman, Ellefson took eighth all-around competition at nationals, before taking fourth overall as a sophomore in 1999. Also as a sophomore, Ellefson took fourth on vault and sixth on the uneven bars. As a junior in 2000, Ellefson was eighth in the all-around competition, while also taking second on bars.
Ellefson was phenomenal during her senior season, as she took fourth on vault and second on the bars as a team captain. Ellefson would go on to be named a CoSIDA Academic All-American and the NACGC/W Regional Gymnast of the Year. She was also named the NCGA Outstanding Senior that year.
On the regional scale, Ellefson won four ECAC titles in four years, including a floor title as a freshman in 1998, an all-around and vault championship as a sophomore in 1999 and an uneven bars champion in 2001 as a senior.