March 31, 2007

Final Stats

YPSILANTI, Mich. - The Northern Illinois gymnastics team found the consistency it had been seeking across all four events Saturday at the Mid-American Conference Championships, unfortunately, those scores put the Huskies in fifth place with a team total of 192.950.

Despite posting its fourth-highest team score of the season, Northern Illinois finished behind eventual champion Eastern Michigan, which defeated second-place Kent State by just .25 to earn its first MAC Gymnastics crown, 194.525 to 194.275. Central Michigan was third with 194.050, followed by Ball State at 193.400, then NIU.

Northern Illinois, which opened on the floor exercise and had one rotation off between each event, scored a 48.250 on the floor, a 48.200 on vault and went 48.250 on both te uneven parallel bars and the balance beam.

"Overall we hit all of our routines today," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "We didn't count any big mistakes, only some little ones. But at the MAC Championships, the teams are separated by the little stuff. We had a few little bobbles here and there and some some good individual performances with Leah [Johnson] and Jennifer [Naughton] on the vault and Jody [Yednock] on bars."

Johnson was named to the second-team All Mid-American Conference squad for her efforts this season. She placed fifth in the all-around Saturday with a score of 38.650, topped by her 9.775 on the vault which tied her for third on that event. The sophomore from Glenview, Ill. added a 9.675 on the bars and 9.600 on the beam and floor.

Yednock claimed the highest finish and score of the day for NIU with a 9.800 on the uneven parallel bars, while Naughton finished fifth on vault with a 9.750. She and junior Amber Whitecotton posted the Huskies' highest scores on floor with a 9.725 to tie for 12th. Sophomore Jennifer Rice led NIU on balance beam with a 9.725 and finished 10th.

"We had a tough draw starting on floor because that is a huge potential scoring event for us and the judging did not loosen up until later in the day," Sontag said. "But I was proud of the way we went in and regrouped. I'm proud of the way they stepped up. There were things we could have done tighter and cleaner, but there were no major glaring errors."

Although Sontag and his team were disappointed in the results, he was pleased with the effort and togetherness of the squad.

"We were together as a team throughout the meet," Sontag said. "We shoed a lot of cohesiveness and we performed darn near as well as we can possibly perform with the line-up where it is. We're a well-rounded team and we're right in the ballpark with all of these teams. We've already talked about next year and what we need to do to score better; we've got our core group coming back and we need to put ourselves in a better position to score starting in August when we're putting together routines."

On Monday, the NCAA Regional Gymnastics fields will be set, and Johnson will find out if she qualified in the all-around competition.

-- NIU --