Feb. 14, 2009
Final Stats
CHICAGO - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team rebounded from a disappointing performance on the balance beam with stellar efforts on their last two events of the night to earn a split of the triangular meet versus Illinois-Chicago and Seattle Pacific Friday night at the UIC Physical Education Building.
The split gives NIU a 4-1 record as Illinois-Chicago claimed the team title with a total of 193.725 while the Huskies posted a respectable road score of 193.000 to take second place, outpointing Seattle Pacific, who scored 189.275.
Northern Illinois actually out-scored UIC on both the vault and bars and was within .05 of the Flames on floor exercise, but a huge 1.2000 differential on the balance beam proved to be the Huskies' undoing. Four of NIU's six competitors on the beam fell off the apparatus and Northern Illinois totaled a season-low team score of 46.975 on the event.
Still, NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag was able to find the silver lining in the Huskies' first loss of the season.
"To have a set-back like we did on beam and come back and score 193 - I don't think I've ever seen it before," Sontag said. "Overall, we're not happy, but the team really showed heart tonight. We rallied. We were down but we said we've got two events and we're going to hold our head high, go for broke and see what we can do, and we ended up with a good road score."
NIU recorded its top score of the year on floor exercise with a 48.725, led by seniors Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS) and Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS), who each scored 9.825 to share the individual event title. The Huskies finished out the competition with a 48.700 score on vault with Johnson and Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Palatine Fremd HS) each tallying a 9.800 to tie for the event title.
For the fourth consecutive meet, Reichard won the all-around competition as she added a 9.750 on floor exercise and a 9.675 on balance beam to 9.8s on the vault and bars. She took second place on bars and was fourth on beam in addition to the first-place finishes in the all-around and on vault.
"Holly is a machine," Sontag said. "She is rock solid out there - but it's because she puts the work in. She comes to the gym with a purpose; she knows what she's capable of and that's why she's the top gymnast in the MAC right now."
Naughton took first place on floor (9.800), second on balance beam (9.850) and was fourth on vault (9.775), and Johnson was first on vault with a season-best 9.825 and shared the title on floor exercise.
Despite the loss, Sontag was proud of the way his upperclassmen responded to the challenge.
"The gymnasts with the most experience dug deep tonight, and I credit our upperclassmen for leading the way on those last two events," Sontag said. "We had a miss leading off on beam, and we got scared that the next person was going to fall off and that's exactly what happened.
"This is what we've been talking about - we see our potential with what we did on the last two events, but potential is nothing without results."
Northern Illinois returns to Mid-American Conference competition next Sunday at 2 p.m. when they play host to league favorite Kent State in the final home meet of the 2009 season. NIU will be attempting to keep its perfect 2009 MAC record intact versus the 2008 league champions.
-- NIU --
