March 28, 2008
KENT, Ohio - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team enters Saturday's Mid-American Conference Championships in Kent, Ohio confident in its status as one of the league's elite teams in 2008. Now, Mark Sontag's team's goal is to "go out and do it."
"There have been years when we've been here when we needed to have our best meet of the year, and count on someone else making a mistake to place well," Sontag said. "We're not there anymore, we're one of the top teams here and we know it. The confidence is here, we just need to go out and do it."
Among MAC teams, the Huskies rank behind only meet host Kent State in the women's gymnastics national rankings as they have risen to No. 38 with their recent performances and an regional qualifying score of 193.420. Northern Illinois brings a 10-4 record, including a 5-2 league mark, into the Championships and has defeated every MAC team except Kent State this season.
More importantly, the Huskies enter the meet healthy and have remained that way throughout 2008 with the line-up remaining intact through nearly every meet this year.
"This is probably the most stable line-up I have had through an entire season," said Sontag, who is completing his ninth campaign as NIU's head coach in 2008. "Once we got through about a third of the year, we have been able to stay consistent which is great because the gymnasts that are in there have gained a lot of experience. Everyone in the line-up has been in a lot of meets and that's what you want when you go to a championship. You want people who aren't going to be rattled by all of the hoopla that goes into this kind of meet."
The backbone of the Northern Illinois team in 2008 has been the trio of Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS), Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Fremd HS) and Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS). Johnson, a three-time MAC Gymnast of the Week in 2008, is an all-arounder who posted her career-best score of 39.125 last week at the State of Illinois Classic. Reichard, a freshman, surpassed the 39-point mark twice during the season and owns the third-highest all-around total in the league. Naughton competes on the vault, balance beam and floor exercise for the Huskies and has excelled at all three - averaging nearly a 9.8 on beam, 9.7 on floor and 9.68 on the vault this year.
While those three account for 11 of NIU's 24 routines in the competition, Sontag believes it will be critical for everyone to hit their routines Saturday.
"It's the championships," Sontag said. "They all need to rise up and be on top of their game. Everyone needs to hit. The title is going to go to the top team that is the most perfect and the most `on' and that's what we've got to do."
If attitude and training account for anything, Sontag says that his team is ready.
"The mood is really positive," Sontag said. "The gymnasts are focused and their goals are set. They want to win this thing and that's all they're thinking about right now. All the coaches feel we have trained as well as we can train and everything is in place."
Although Sontag believes any of the seven teams could win the championship, Kent State, which enters the meet ranked 27th nationally, and defending champion Eastern Michigan have posted the top marks this season along with the Huskies.
"In gymnastics, we can't do anything about what anyone else does," he said. "We're focused on ourselves. If we're looking at someone else, we are losing focus."
NIU's highest MAC finish under Sontag was a third-place showing in 2005, which tied the school's best placing ever. The 2008 Huskies look to break through that barrier and bring home the school's first Mid-American Conference gymnastics title.
Competition begins Saturday at 1 p.m. (EDT) at the MAC Center in Kent, Ohio. Eastern Michigan is the defending Mid-American Conference champion.
-- NIU --
