March 9, 2009

Meet Results in PDF Format

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team went to Kalamazoo for its final dual meet of the 2009 season looking to put a "complete meet" together, raise its regional qualifying score and gain some momentum going into the State Championships in Chicago (March 14) and the MAC Championships in Muncie, Ind. (March 21). Consider that mission accomplished.

The Huskies tallied their best road score since the 2004 season with a 194.300 Monday to defeat MAC foe Western Michigan and improve their record to 5-4 on the year, 4-2 in MAC competition. WMU totaled a 192.450 and dropped to 2-17 on the year.

"It was a great meet all the way around for us," said NIU head coach Mark Sontag. "We had a strong showing on all four events. We didn't have a weakness and everybody came through. It was a great day."

For only the third time this season, and the first time since January 25, Northern Illinois scored a 48.000 or above in all four events. The Huskies' 48.850 on floor exercise was the team's best floor score of the season as Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South HS) won the event with a 9.825, Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Palatine Fremd HS) and Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo./Smithville HS) tied for second at 9.800 and Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township HS) finished fourth with a 9.775.

"We've done a lot of work on floor this week, specifically on our landings and saving those tenths here and there," Sontag said. "We changed a few things up, which is always hard to do this late in the season, but it definitely gave us a much better feel on floor."

NIU's "beam team" also turned in an exceptional performance with a 48.675 as freshman Tanya Rachan (Lowell, Ind./Hanover Central HS) earned the first individual event title of her career with a 9.825 routine on beam that beat her previous best score by 1.500 point. She was followed closely by Naughton and Jessica Watanabe (Palatina, Ill./Palatine HS), who tied for second with scores of 9.800.

"Tanya was on top of her game today, which is good because we're counting on her in three events," Sontag said. "She won beam for us in a strong line-up, so to have a freshman doing that bodes well for the future."

Reichard won the all-around title for the sixth time this season with a total of 39.050, the fifth time she passed the 39.000 mark. In addition to her 9.800 on floor, she won the uneven parallel bars event with a 9.800 and took second on vault and led NIU with a 9.825.

Rachan and fellow freshman Ashley Guerra (Orland park, Ill./Carl Sandburg HS) tied for third on bars as they each scored a 9.725 as NIU totaled a 48.425 on the event. On vault, the Huskies' team score of 38.350 was helped by Naughton's third place 9.750 and Blum's 9.725, which gave her fourth place.

Sontag was pleased with the all-around effort of his team and looks for Northern Illinois to carry the momentum from this meet into Saturday's competition at UIC when the Huskies will compete with Illinois, Illinois State and UIC for the state title.

"I think it's great we're going into our two championships coming off a strong meet, it can't help but be a confidence builder for us," Sontag said. "In the last few meets prior to today, we've been exceptional on a couple of events, or even on three events, but then have had a miss here or there on one event or another. We haven't let it get us down because we've been brilliant on every event at some point this year. Now we've put it all together, so it's a positive note for us to move into the next few meets."

The last time NIU achieved a team total of 194 or above on the road was five seasons ago, when they hit the mark three times on the road during the 2004 season.

-- NIU --