Jan. 11, 2009

Final Stats

Final Stats as PDF

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois gymnastics team used a strong performance by all-arounder Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Fremd HS) and got clutch routines from three freshmen who were making their Huskie debuts to defeat Bowling Green in the 2009 season opener at the NIU Convocation Center Sunday. NIU out-scored BGSU 193.450 to 191.875 to move to 1-0 on the season and 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference.

Faced with adversity before the season opener had even started when senior stalwart Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS) was scratched from three events due to injury, Northern Illinois rallied behind Reichard, a sophomore, and used the improved depth Coach Mark Sontag had touted during the preseason. Leading by just .075 after the first two events, the Huskie beam team, which featured four newcomers in the six-gymnast line-up, combined to score 48.400 and provide the key points toward the NIU victory.

"Our freshmen really stepped up and got the job done," Sontag said. "Our line-up was already heavy on underclassmen and then Jen [Naughton] goes down who is our anchor on three events. I was adjusting line-ups after warm-ups, so it was great to see some people step up right out of the gate and get the job done."

Freshmen Shonda Clore (Grand Rapids, Mich./Northview), Ashley Guerra (Orland park, Ill./Carl Sandburg HS) and Tanya Rachan (Lowell, Ind./Hanover Central HS), as well as sophomore Sarah Hurley (Geneva, Ill./Geneva Community HS) saw their first career action Sunday for the Huskies. Clore recorded scores of 9.750 and 9.700 on vault and beam, respectively, while Guerra contributed with a 9.725 on bars - good for second place - and a 9.675 on beam. Rachan scored a 9.625 on both beam and floor, and Hurley's 9.550 on vault led off the meet for NIU.

Reichard won the all-around competition with a career best score of 39.125 as she earned the highest scores of the meet on both bars (9.750) and floor exercise (9.800) and was the second-highest finisher on vault (9.850) and beam (9.725).

"Holly really lit it up today," Sontag said. "To go 39 [points] out of the gates is huge, that's competing with anyone in the country."

Sontag was pleased with his team's performance in the first meet of the season but is expecting more from the 2009 Huskies.

"All we have to do is stay healthy and keep building from here," he said. I know we're better than what we did today, so I feel really good with where we are, and we can go from here. You always want to improve in depth, improve your performance and compete at a higher level. I feel like the three critical areas that you need to improve on, we've done that, and what's left is consistency to go out and get the job done week in and week out."

Northern Illinois will take next weekend off before returning to action at the NIU Convocation Center on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. versus Eastern Michigan.

-- NIU --