It’s a sport that gets little attention and requires a serious commitment.

That suits UC Davis junior Tiana Montell just fine.

Gymnastics started as a fun hobby for Montell when she was 5. Now, it helps pay her college tuition at UC Davis, which she will represent with her teammates at an NCAA regional on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.

"I’m super excited," Montell said Tuesday. "I’m way more excited to go with my team."

Montell, who earned a partial scholarship prior to this season, competed at a regional as an individual her freshman year after qualifying in the all-around.

The Aggies qualified as one of the top 36 teams for the first time since 1998, securing one of the final three spots.

"It was a lot of fun going as an individual because I was a freshman, but I realized after competing it would be such fun as a team if we could go together," Montell said.

That togetherness has been something that Montell has cherished about the sport. It’s why she’s stayed with it all these years.

Gymnastics requires a time commitment on par with any other sport and nearly every week of the year involves training at least five days.

Montell originally wanted to try ballet as a little girl growing up on the Big Island, but was convinced to try gymnastics by her older sister.

She joined the Pantheon School of Gymnastics, where she spent the next 13 years. Instead of competing on athletic teams at St. Joseph School in Hilo, Montell would go straight to the club after school for a three-hour practice.

"You really build friendships through gymnastics and I think that’s why I stayed with it," she said. "There were times where I wanted to quit because it’s a hard sport and it gets really frustrating, but knowing my really good friends were there, we were a team, and I stuck with it."

Montell was a two-time state champion and competed in Junior Olympic Nationals three times, including her senior year of high school.

She didn’t decide to walk on at UC Davis until May of her senior year and joined the Aggies in the fall.

She capped off an amazing year by winning the all-around at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships with a season-high 38.725 score.

Just the second UC Davis freshman qualifier in school history, she competed at the regional in Seattle, where she finished 17th.

After earning All-MPSF honors on vault and the beam as a sophomore, Montell earned it on beam again this season.

She continues to train in all of the events, but has competed mostly on beam as she battles an ankle injury that she says is getting better.

"Last year I did just three events because I had a foot injury and this year my ankles have been hurting so I’ve been doing less vaulting," Montell said. "Whatever event they need me on, they put me in. I’m fairly healthy for a gymnast in college.

"I haven’t had any major injuries or that kind of thing little aches and pains here and there but I just tape up my ankles and go."

One of her biggest accomplishments is getting an actual move on the uneven bars named after her.

It’s called the Montell and it’s a skill she developed for her club team in high school.

"It’s a flip in between the high bar and the low bar but it’s hard to explain," she said. "My club coach said you have to complete it in a national championship for it to be named after you. So my freshman year in high school, I did it at the national championships and it was crazy."

So does she still use it in college?

"I had to stop doing it because I got too tall and my feet would drag on the mat," she said.

And how tall is that?

"I’m only 5-3," she said. "That’s tall?"

It’s tall enough.