March 12, 2010
DeKALB, Ill. - While Northern Illinois teams enjoy spring break competing in locales such as San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif., Clearwater and Orlando, Fla. and Pinehurst, N.C., the Huskie gymnastics team heads to Ypsilanti, Mich. for a trip that is about nothing but business.
Northern Illinois will take on Mid-American Conference foes Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, as well as Seattle Pacific, at the EMU Eagle Invitational Saturday at 6 p.m. (Central) at the Bowen Field House. The quadrangular meet is NIU's final competition prior to the State of Illinois Classic and the MAC Championships in the next two weeks.
"We're looking forward to an excellent meet," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "The Eagle Invitational is a quad meet, so it's a nice little dress rehearsal for the state meet and for the postseason. We'll be competing in the same order we'll be going at State, so that can only help us."
After falling to Central Michigan and UIC in the last two weeks, the Huskies are looking to post one of its top team scores of the year and build momentum. NIU is 6-5 on the season, 2-3 in the Mid-American Conference.
"We want to have a performance we can use as a springboard into the last two meets of the year," Sontag said. "We're looking to bounce back from last week [at UIC], where we felt that as a team we did not compete at the level we are capable of. So the team is chomping at the bit to get out there again. We are getting the job done to a pretty high degree, but we still think we can do better. Our potential is still very high."
The Huskies' season high score of 192.775 came in a tri-meet at Kent State on Feb. 19 as injuries and inconsistency have prevented NIU from surpassing the 193-point mark so far this year. Northern Illinois earned a season-high vault score of 48.350 on the vault at UIC as Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township HS), Sarah Hurley (Geneva, Ill./Geneva Community HS) and Tanya Rachan (Lowell, Ind./Hanover Central HS) all recorded their best scores of the season on the event at 9.800, 9.625 and 9.675, respectively. Hurley also had her top balance beam routine of the season with a 9.700, while Ashley Guerra (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg HS) tied her season-best score of 9.825 while taking the title on uneven parallel bars.
"The core of our line-up this year has been Natalie Blum, Ashley Guerra, Tanya Rachan and Sarah Hurley and we'll look to them to continue getting it done," Sontag said. "They are all good, capable performers and we need them to perform when the lights are on."
The Huskies will be looking to build consistency despite having to juggle its line-up once again this week. Throughout the season, NIU has inserted younger and less-experienced gymnasts into meets and he is hoping that experience pays off in the season's final month.
"We have struggled with consistency this year," Sontag said. "The people we're relying on now have less competitive experience than last year, when we had seniors throughout the line-up. Then you add the injuries - to Holly Reichard and Rachel Adams, among others - that have forced us to juggle the line-up throughout the season, and getting that consistent line-up has been a challenge.
Fourteen of the 15 gymnasts on NIU's roster have seen action in meets this season. Following the trip to Ypsilanti for the Eagle Invitational, Northern Illinois will travel to Bloomington, Ill. for the State of Illinois Classic featuring NIU, Illinois, UIC and Illinois State on Sat., March 20.
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