Gymnastics was always Alise McDonald's destiny. After all, her mother was a gymnast and her uncle was a gymnastics coach. So, it was no surprise that she received her first leotard and her first lesson at the age of three.

Some 18 years later, Alise is an outstanding gymnast at the collegiate level and she has never enjoyed it more.

"Gymnastics was always part of my life," she recalls. "So, it was never a matter of enjoying it or not. It was just what I did.

"However, since coming to college, it's been very enjoyable. I really look forward to my time in the gym and the association with all of my teammates."

A graduate of Randallstown High School, Alise joined the Tigers' gymnastics program after a successful career at Hill's Angels Gymnastics Club.

For the first two years of her career, she was a very steady performer for the Tigers, competing in three events at a very high level. An outstanding vaulter, she won the ECAC title in vault as a sophomore after earning the gold medal on vault at the USA Gymnastics Championship Meet as a freshman.

While vault was her specialty, Alise was also making tremendous contributions on beam and floor. But, she never competed on bars.

"Coming into the season, we knew that our bars team could be a weakness for us," admits Towson Coach Dick Filbert. "So, we were determined that Alise would be competing on bars. We needed her to be part of our bars lineup. To her credit, she accepted the responsibility and now she is one of our best performers on bars."

For her part, Alise is happy to be excelling on bars. She says, "I think have more confidence than I've had in the past. I guess I have more drive as well. The coaches worked with me a lot in the pre-season and they have really built up my confidence."

Now that she is also competing on bars, Alise has emerged as the Tigers' top performer in the all-around and one of the best all-arounds in the ECAC. Last month, she was honored as the ECAC Gymnast of the Week after topping the 39.00 mark in the all-around for the first time in her career. In the Tigers' double win at Pennsylvania and Brown, she had a career high 9.825 on bars which resulted in career best 39.075 all-around score.

Despite her success on bars, Alise admits that floor exercise is her favorite event. She says, "I have more confidence on floor than anywhere else."

Although she is the Tigers' top vaulter, Alise says that she has a healthy fear of vaulting. She says, "I've always been afraid of vaulting so I am extra-focused and I go extra hard. Confidence is a funny thing. It's important to be confident but it's very dangerous to be over-confident."

As one of the upperclassmen on a very young team, Alise is slowly adjusting to her role as a team leader.

She says, "I know that the younger gymnasts look up to me because I have more experience. But, they are just as good as I am. I feel that we are all competing on the same skill level."

The Tigers, who are 8-4 on the season, make their home debut on Friday, February 20 when they host the Shelli Calloway Memorial Meet in the Towson Center at 7:00 p.m.