Jan. 28, 2007

Final Stats

DeKALB, Ill. - The 2007 Mid-American Conference campaign got off to a rocky start for the Northern Illinois gymnasts, who fell to Bowling Green Sunday at the NIU Convocation Center, 190.200 to 188.225.

The loss drops the Huskies to 2-1 on the season, 0-1 in MAC play while Bowling Green improves to 3-1, 2-1.

Northern Illinois sophomore Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo.) who posted the top score of the day in the floor exercise to win that event with a 9.750. Naughton also placed third in the vault with a score of 9.725.

NIU's Allison Holysz (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) claimed second place on the uneven parallel bars with a 9.675 and the first of Jody Yednock's (West Chicago, Ill.) two third-place finishes also came on bars with a 9.625. Yednock tied teammates Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill.) and Meghan Cronin (St. Charles, Ill.) for third place on the beam with a 9.500.

"Jody really hit a nice bar routine, she stepped up and got the job done," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag, "and the same thing with Allison, who led us off on the bars. We didn't build from there."

Despite strong routines from Yednock and Holysz, Northern Illinois struggled on what is traditionally one of its strongest events, the uneven parallel bars, and that, to a large extent, was the difference in the meet, said NIU head coach Mark Sontag.

"We've been like a machine on that event and we just walked in today and didn't get the job done," Sontag said. "We had a miss and then it snowballed on us. I was pleased with floor, we took a step up there and hit a few passes that we missed last meet. Our vault was OK, we are developing a lot of new skills there, and our beam was pretty good."

The Falcons were led by junior Jholeen Ponce who took both the vault and beam titles with scores of 9.825, the highest individual score of the day, and 9.675, respectively. BGSU's Sakura Tomita won the bars competition with a score of 9.700.

As a team, Bowling Green outscored the Huskies in three of four events to claim the win.

"We've got to regroup and go back in the gym and go from here," Sontage said. "We've been training well and looking well. This kind of blindsided all of us, we anticipated having a much stronger meet this week and from the training, we should have."

Northern Illinois makes its first road trip of the 2007 season next Saturday when the Huskies travel to Iowa City, Iowa for a quad meet versus Iowa, Winona State and Wisconsin-Whitewater.

-- NIU --