Feb. 25, 2007

Final Stats

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Northern Illinois gymnastics team completed a three-meet road swing with a solid, but not spectacular performance Sunday versus a pair of ranked teams in Champaign, falling to No. 10 Iowa State and No. 24 Illinois while recording a team score of 191.225.

NIU competed without all-around threat Leah Johnson, who was injured Friday in the Huskies' meet versus Ball State, forcing several newcomers into the line-up for the first time this season.

"We got good individual performances again, but overall we are glad we're through this tough two-week period with three road meets," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "We had a couple of misses on the floor and beam, but we had three gymnasts who stepped in to compete for the first time this year. We continue to battle through injury and adversity."

Sophomore Jennifer Naughton recorded Northern Illinois' top score of the meet with a 9.850 on vault to tie for fourth. She was followed by junior Amber Whitecotton's season-high 9.800 on that event while freshman Natalie Blum added a 9.750. The Huskies totaled a season-high team score of 48.700 on vault.

Whitecotton performed well in all three of her events on the day as she posted a 9.675 on the beam to tie for 10th place, and a 9.625 on floor, good for 12th. In addition to her 9.750 on vault, Blum earned a 9.675 on bars and a 9.700 on the floor to record NIU's top score on that event.

Senior Meghan Cronin led NIU on the balance beam for the second straight meet as she tied for fifth with a 9.750, followed by Whitecotton and Jennifer Rice, who added a 9.650. Tiffany Anderson topped the Huskies' efforts on the uneven parallel bars as she tied for eighth with a season-best 9.800 and Allison Holysz' 9.750 on that event tied for her top mark of the year. Northern Illinois tallied a 48.150 team score on the bars.

"For the most part we hit the bars well which was a good turnaround from the other day [at Ball State]," Sontag said. "Overall, this score should help us out as far as the regional qualifying. It will bump us up a little."

Northern Illinois returns home Sunday to take on Mid-American Conference foe Eastern Michigan at 1 p.m. at Victor E. Court in the NIU Convocation Center.

-- NIU --