March 19, 2010
DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois women's gymnastics team enters its final two competitions of 2010 this weekend at the State of Illinois Classic, the unofficial state championship for women's gymnastics featuring teams from Illinois, UIC, Illinois State and Northern Illinois. This year's state meet will be held at Redbird Arena on the Illinois State campus beginning at 5 p.m. (Central) Saturday.
The Huskies, 8-6 on the season, are coming off a second place finish at the Eagle Invitational quadrangular meet last weekend, and NIU head coach Mark Sontag has seen the intensity rise this week during practice.
"The intensity level definitely has been there [in practice] this week," Sontag said. "These gymnasts know each other. A high percentage of them are from Illinois. There will be a lot more fans and it's a big event. We'll have the same rotation as we did last week so that will be familiar for us."
After seeing several of his gymnasts battle injuries, and spending much of 2010 adjusting the line-up, NIU is as settled as it has been all season, Sontag said.
"We're a little more settled in the line up - there are no exhibitions anymore so it is a matter of fine-turning the six people in each event, plus one back-up, that we know are going to go out there for us. We've had a good week of practice and we're coming off of a pretty good outing last weekend at Eastern Michigan. We're pretty confident as we go down there that our training has been good, and our attitude has been great so we're looking forward to this weekend," he said.
NIU took second at the State of Illinois Classic a year ago behind Illinois in the meet held at UIC while the Huskies' highest team score this season is a 192.775 at Kent State on Feb. 19. Northern Illinois has scored 192 or higher four times in 2010, but has yet to break the 193 mark despite scoring 48 or higher on every event at one time or another this year. The key to achieving its highest scores of the year is consistency, Sontag said, and the Huskies have worked toward that goal, as well as on their 2010 weaknesses, throughout the week.
"We looked at all of our skills and checked our hit percentages on those," he said. "We looked at which skills we really want to go for, and we've been working on fine tuning those things that we have been missing the most throughout the year. We have looked at all of our extras and made sure we are able to hit on those.
"Every event is important so we've got to hit all of them. We haven't had the 10.0 vaults this year, which hurts us a little there. As far as the other events, we haven't had one that has been weak. We have to hit all four to make some noise so that's what we've been concentrating on."
The 2010 Huskies have been led by senior Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township), who was named the MAC Co-Gymnast of the Week after winning two events (vault, floor exercise) at Eastern Michigan last Saturday. Sophomore Ashley Guerra (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg) and junior Jessica Watanabe (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) claimed the titles on the uneven parallel bars and balance beam, respectively. Sontag also expects to have 2009 MAC Gymnast of the Year Holly Reichard available Saturday after resting her over the past two weeks.
Following the State of Illinois Classic, the Huskies will compete at the Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday, March 27 in Bowling Green, Ohio.
-- NIU -
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