Jan. 14, 2007

Final Stats

DeKALB, Ill. - Northern Illinois sophomore Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill.) took the all-around title and freshman Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill.) won the vault and floor exercise competitions to lead the Huskies to a tri-meet victory over Wisconsin-Stout and M.I.T. Sunday at the NIU Convocation Center.

Northern Illinois totaled 190.95 points to outdistance the Blue Devils of UW-Stout, who narrowly edged M.I.T., 176.900 to 174.075.

Johnson totaled an all-around score of 38.150 by scoring 9.750 on her vault, 9.675 on both the bars and beam and 9.050 on her floor routine. She tied Blum for the vault title as NIU claimed the top six spots in that event. Johnson also won the beam and placed second in the bars, where Huskie gymnasts again claimed the top six spots.

"Leah winning the all around title was great," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "To see her put up a 38 after coming back off a knee injury a year ago was great to see. And it's probably a good sign that her weakest event today [floor] was one that had been her strongest coming into the meet."

Northern Illinois swept the individual events titles with Blum and Johnson tying for first on the vault, senior Jody Yednock (West Chicago, Ill.) winning on the bars with a 9.750 routine, Johnson taking the beam and Blum the floor competition with the single highest score of the day, 9.775.

"I was very pleased with the freshman group, particularly Natalie Blum," Sontag said. "She was a great competitor and really hit all of her events today. Given two more weeks of training, we'll throw her into the beam as well."

Johnson, a late addition to the all-around competition, defeated Julia Zimmerman of M.I.T. 38.150 to 37.275 to win the title. Meghan Hargens of UW-Stout was third at 36.975.

Sontag was pleased with his team's effort in its 2007 debut.

"I thought we had a pretty strong performance," he said. "This was good to go out and see what we're made of. We knew that floor and beam were our weaker events coming into today, both because of injuries and illnesses and some new skills. We have a strong group sitting on the sidelines for those events, but today's meet allowed us to see where our deficiencies were."

NIU was especially strong on the uneven parallel bars and on the vault in Sunday's meet.

"Our bars were very very nice; we hit every routine there today," he said. "Vault was our best event today and I'm probably most proud of that because that has traditionally been a weaker area for us. It's nice to have the level of difficulty in our vaulting line-up this year that will allow us to be more competitive with the tougher teams."

Northern Illinois opens its MAC dual meet season on Sunday, Jan. 28 at the Convocation Center when they take on Bowling Green beginning at 2 p.m. (Central).

Team Results
1) Northern Illinois 190.950
2) Wisconsin-Stout 176.900
3) M.I.T. 174.075

Vault Results
1) Blum (NIU) 9.750, Johnson (NIU) 9.750
3) Naughton (NIU) 9.725
4) Whitecotton (NIU) 9.675, Murphy (NIU) 9.675
6) Sandoval (NIU) 9.650
7) Zimmerman (M.I.T.) 9.500
8) Hargens (UW-Stout) 9.475

Bars Results
1) Yednock (NIU) 9.750
2) Johnson (NIU) 9.675
3) Anderson (NIU) 9.625, Blum (NIU) 9.625
5) Holysz (NIU) 9.550
6) Murphy (NIU) 9.500
7) Zimmerman (M.I.T.) 9.175
8) Hargens (UW-Stout) 8.950

Beam Results
1) Johnson (NIU) 9.675
2) Naughton (NIU) 9.650
3) Cronin (NIU) 9.625
4) Adams (NIU) 9.475
5) Zimmerman (M.I.T.) 9.450
6) Harrison (M.I.T.) 8.950
7) Hargens (UW-Stout) 8.875
8) Blankenship (UW-Stout) 8.825

Floor Results
1) Blum (NIU) 9.775
2) Hargens (UW-Stout) 9.675
3) Whitecotton (NIU) 9.625
4) Murphy (NIU) 9.575
5) Timm (UW-Stout) 9.325
6) Naughton (NIU) 9.275
7) Zimmerman (M.I.T.) 9.150
8) Olafson (UW-Stout) 9.100

All-Around Results
1) Johnson (NIU) 38.150
2) Zimmerman (M.I.T.) 37.275
3) Hargens (UW-Stout) 36.975
4) Murphy (NIU) 36.500
5) Harrison (M.I.T.) 35.125
6) Blankenship (UW-Stout) 35.000
7) Timm (UW-Stout) 34.650
8) Trumble (UW-Stout) 34.525

-- NIU --