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Northern Illinois Gymnasts Pick Up Two MAC Wins
March 14, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - After seeing its five-meet winning streak come to a close a week ago in a quadrangular meet at Eastern Michigan, the Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team returned to the gym Friday determined to end its Mid-American Conference regular season competitions on a high note. With a courageous performance from junior Jennifer Naughton paving the way, the Huskies did just that, defeating Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan to pick up a pair of MAC wins and improve its overall record to 9-2. Their nine victories is the most for NIU since the 2005 season, while the Huskies' league record now stands at 5-2. Northern Illinois posted a score of 193.625 to narrowly edge the Eagles, who tallied a 193.500 while Bowling Green was third with a team score of 193.125. "We had a lot of motivation this week," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "Last week, we didn't perform at the level we're capable of and the attitude of this team was, `we're not going to let it happen again.' Even though our meet last week was not terrible, we hated to lose [to EMU], so it was nice to come back strong today." Naughton has been one of NIU's top gymnasts all season, but the junior rose to another level Friday. After struggling with a stomach virus over the last two days, Naughton's participation in the meet was in question. All the Missouri native did was post her season-best scores of 9.850 on both vault and floor exercise while also coming through with a 9.625 on the balance beam. "We didn't even know if Jen [Naughton] would make the trip with us," Sontag said. "From that to the way she performed today just showed what type of competitor she is. She finished her routine on floor and was literally running off to be sick. That deserves some kind of recognition." All-arounder Holly Reichard also stood out for the Huskies on Friday as she finished second in the all-around competition with a score of 39.050 to increase her regional qualifications. Junior Leah Johnson put together a pair of solid routines with a 9.850 on the floor exercise and a 9.775 on vault.
Overall, the Huskies were consistent on all four events and up and down the line-up, including a season-best total of 48.725 on the vault. Northern Illinois scored at least 48 points on every event with a 48.400 on floor exercise, a 48.275 on balance beam and a 48.225 on the uneven parallel bars. "If you can go 48-plus on every event, that's some pretty good gymnastics," Sontag said. "Unlike other years, we really don't have a weakness on this team. We are a pretty well-rounded, solid gymnastics team and that's been one of our strengths this season. "We were not perfect; we had a number of misses, but we had people stepping up too. That is the sign of the depth that is helping us out this year. We don't have all of our eggs in one basket anymore, we have multiple talents on the team so we are able to have a mistake here or there and still compete at a very high level." With its regular season MAC competitions completed, Northern Illinois will compete in a pair of championships in the next two weeks with the State Championships next Saturday, March 22, at the University of Illinois and the MAC Championships March 29 at Kent State. "We helped ourselves today as a team and Holly in the all-around, as far as the regional scores," Sontag said. "We are able to replace the scores from last weekend with these improved scores. Now we meet our neighbors in the state and see where we sit there." -- NIU -- |
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