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Feb. 27, 2008 CHICAGO - Prior to the suspension of all athletics competition at Northern Illinois on February 15, the Huskie women's gymnastics team was off to one of its best starts in years. After spending nearly a month in the practice gym as opposed to the competition floor, the team showed no ill effects of the layoff or the events on the DeKalb campus as NIU posted its best team score of the season en route to a 193.675-192.500 victory over Illinois-Chicago at the UIC Physical Education Building in Chicago. The meet had originally been scheduled for Feb. 16. "I knew we had it in us," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag of his team's performance on Wednesday. "I was hoping to see what I saw. I know we had the talent and the heart, but the timing issues in gymnastics are tough and you have to compete in order to improve and that's what we've missed for the last three-and-a-half weeks." The Huskies were led by freshman all-arounder Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Fremd HS), who took the all-around title over teammate Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS) with a career-best score of 38.975. Reichard placed third on the vault, scoring a 9.700, was second on the uneven parallel bars (9.750), tied for first on the balance beam with a season best 9.850 and tied for fourth place on the floor exercise (9.675). "Holly really lit it up tonight," Sontag said. "She put it all together tonight. Anytime you score near a 39, you are one of the top all-arounders in the country and best news is she is only a freshman." Northern Illinois also got a season-best performance from its "beam team" of Reichard, Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS), Rachel Adams (Fruitport, Mich./Fruitport HS), Leah Johnson and Jessica Watanabe (Palatine, Ill./Palatine HS) as each of them scored a 9.725 or higher on that event Wednesday. The Huskies totaled a 48.950 on the balance beam to record the fifth highest team score in school history on that event.
"We did well on every event tonight, but we did fantastic on the balance beam," Sontag said. "We had a couple of small mistakes but were able to adjust on the fly and do what we needed to do to get those tenths back. It was smart gymnastics." The Huskies will meet UIC again on Sunday when the Flames come to DeKalb along with Central Michigan for the final home gymnastics meet of the year. The tri-meet begins at 2 p.m. in the Convocation Center. -- NIU -- |
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