March 8, 2008

Final Stats

YPSILANTI, Mich. - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team saw its four-meet winning streak broken but still picked up a pair of victories Saturday in a tightly-judged quadrangular meet at Eastern Michigan.

The Huskies tallied a team score of 191.750 to place behind MAC defending champion Eastern Michigan, which scored a 192.475, but defeated Illinois State (190.625) and Air Force (189.750). Northern Illinois upped its record to 7-2 overall and is now 3-2 in the Mid-American Conference.

"I think we counted at least one miss on every event but the floor and we can't have that against the MAC schools," said head coach Mark Sontag. "It was one of those days. We've been going so well but we were off today. We have been competing way above average but today was just kind of an average day."

The Huskies saw several gymnasts post excellent scores, including junior Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS) who continued her domination of the balance beam competition this year. Naughton won the event Saturday with a 9.825 while freshman teammate Jessica Watanabe (Palatine, Ill./Fremd HS) placed third, scoring 9.750. Northern Illinois had the best team beam score of the meet with a 47.825.

Northern was also strong on the floor exercise behind Naughton, who placed fourth with a 9.775, followed by Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS) in fifth with a 9.750 and Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Palatine HS) and Jennifer Rice (Homewood, Ill./Homewood-Flossmoor HS), who tied for sixth at 9.725. Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township HS) was just behind with a 9.700 to tie for eighth.

"After the first rotation we were in fourth place, and we brought ourselves up to second," Sontag said. "You look at scores and you see that the level of competition was really high. The judging was unbelievably tight, but the scores make it look tougher."

Reichard led Northern Illinois in the all-around with a 38.225 despite a miss on the uneven bars. She tied for third on vault with a score of 9.775. Senior Allison Holysz (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Palatine Fremd HS) led NIU on the bars as she tied for fifth with a 9.575.

"Holly had a great vault and floor was probably our best event overall," Sontag said. "Our beam was good again with Jennifer Naughton and Jessica Watanabe."

NIU will face Eastern Michigan again next Friday as the Eagles will join the Huskies and Bowling Green in a triangular meet at Bowling Green, Ohio beginning at 6 p.m. (Central).

-- NIU --