Former Red Dragon Gymnast Selected for National Hall of Fame

02/02/2018 

Former SUNY Cortland women's gymnastics All-American Sulekha Modi Zaug '00 M '02 has been selected for induction into the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Hall of Fame.

Zaug, who is now the recreation director at Glen Arden Retirement Community in Goshen, N.Y., will be one of seven gymnasts honored during the NCGA National Championships March 23-24 at Springfield College in Massachusetts.

The Queens native will be Cortland's second NCGA Hall of Fame inductee. Kimberly Holmes Dean '94, another All-American Red Dragon gymnast, was inducted in 2016.

Zaug was a three-time national champion on uneven bars in 1997, 1998 and 2000 and finished second nationally in the event in 1999. She was the first gymnast in the history of the NCGA to win three individual national titles in the same event. She still holds a share of the school uneven bars record with a 9.80.

In addition, Zaug earned first team All-America honors with a fifth-place national finish on balance beam in 1997 and a fourth-place showing in the all-around in 2000.On the regional level, Zaug won ECAC titles on uneven bars in 1997 and 1999 and was a four-time All-ECAC performer in the event with top-six finishes.

“I was totally all-in on gymnastics,” Zaug told the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. last fall.  “Even today, I have vivid dreams about doing my entire routine in slow motion. Sometimes three times a week - it’s the weirdest thing.

“So today, I channel my energies into being the recreation director at Glen Arden,” she says. “Anybody who knows me, knows that I go all-in on things.”

The Times Herald-Record profiled Zaug for her tireless work at Glen Arden, one of only 12 continuing-care retirement facilities in New York state. She is also in the process of starting a small, organic farm with her boyfriend.

A team captain during her senior year in 2000, Zaug was an NCGA All-Academic Team member and earned Dean's List honors at Cortland multiple times.

The NCGA Hall of Fame was established in 2011 to pay tribute and give deserved recognition and honor to outstanding former athletes and/or coaches and administrators who have shown distinctive and exceptional ability while participating within or supporting Division III gymnastics.