Junior was member of Gymnastics Club, involved in cancer awareness

After five days in California for a national competition, the IU Gymnastics Club landed in Denver Sunday to catch a connecting flight back to Indianapolis. The team members were excited since they had had a successful tournament and one member had won the beam \ncompetition. \nSoon after deplaning in Denver, \njunior Julianne Repay received a text message from one of her friends from high school. A few minutes later, she announced that team member Christine Wampler had died earlier that morning in Louisville after attending a Phi Kappa Sigma formal with her boyfriend.\n"It was a weird scene," said junior Alex Fiato, who had become close friends with Wampler. "Me and Julianne were sitting next to each other. Julianne said it once and then said it again. I didn't understand at first and we didn't have all the details. We went from celebrating a really good trip ... and then we didn't know what to do. It was silent. The team didn't talk for about a half hour." \nRepay said Wampler, also a junior, had decided not to go to California because of schoolwork but had been excited about the chance to go to the formal since she couldn't take time off to go to nationals. Repay had known Wampler since third grade and the two had kept in touch through the first two years of college when Repay was attending the University of Arizona. Repay transferred to IU at the beginning of this year and was excited when she and Wampler both joined the IU Gymnastics Club because they had been on their high school gymnastics team together. She was shocked to hear the news of Wampler's death from one of their mutual high school friends.\n"I cried and kind of went hysterical at first," Repay said. "It didn't even set in because I wasn't in Bloomington. When we landed I didn't want to go home. We were going to move in together next year and she had lived with me for a month so I had some of her stuff and I didn't want to go home and face it."\nIU alumnus Trent Weldy was shocked to hear the news, too. Weldy and Wampler both worked at Menards and lived at the same apartment complex. Weldy said Wampler hadn't shown up to work on Sunday and her sister had called Menards looking for her. Weldy said he had just recently talked to Wampler and was studying when their mutual friend and Menards employee Adam Carr called him with the news.\n"I just said 'OK,' but it didn't really hit me," he said. "I went over to Adam's and we just sat outside and it was like 'Whoa.' I came home and looked at Facebook and all the pictures of us. I can't believe she's gone. I feel like I can just walk down there through the door and she'll be there. It's really different ... It doesn't seem real."\nThough her death came suddenly, memories of Wampler are still alive in her friends' minds.\nWhen her friends were down, Wampler was always there with a smile and some chocolate, Fiato said.\n"She was always my friend who had chocolate," Fiato said. "You could always guarantee that she had a Hershey's in her purse. I'd be upset and she'd be like 'Here, eat this.'" \nThat smile and upbeat attitude is what Wampler's friends said they will miss most.\n"Whenever she's around you're pretty much happy," said Carr, who's also an IU junior. "She'd come over to my house between classes and I'd take her to class. We'd just talk. I told her all the time she reminded me of my sister. There aren't many people I could talk to like I talked to her."\nRepay recalled several fun times she had with Wampler during their long friendship, including a fifth grade class trip to Michigan and eating salsa Wampler's mom made while talking with both of them.\n"She was just fun," Repay said. "I feel like she was the person who appreciated life more than almost everyone I know. She was dealt some difficult cards but she never felt sorry for herself. She always made the best of things and was happy and positive."\nHer friends said she loved her Yorkie, Brutus, gymnastics and Gonzaga basketball, and was very involved in breast cancer awareness since her mom died of breast cancer two years ago. Wampler and her sister were part of an organization called Y Me, and were planning to participate in the organization's breast cancer walk in Chicago this Mother's Day. Wampler had even set up a Web site where people could donate money to the cause. She was also planning to accompany Fiato on a Katrina relief trip right after finals week.\n"She always cared about other people and was there to back everyone up," Fiato said. "The Hurricane Katrina aid, the walk -- she wanted to give back and make the world better as a whole."\nFiato said the team plans to go to her funeral together and possibly place a jacket and T-shirt from nationals that she took for Wampler, along with a note from the team, in her casket so she can take a piece of the team with her. She said the team might also have a dinner to celebrate Wampler's life.\n"Christine wouldn't want us to be upset because she was always happy and bubbly," Fiato said. "She was a really great person"