March 26, 2010

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois gymnastics team enters Saturday's Mid-American Conference Championships in Bowling Green, Ohio, with one goal in mind - victory. NIU will battle the six other MAC gymnastics teams for the 2010 league title beginning at 1 p.m. in Anderson Arena.

The meet will be televised in the Bowling Green, Ohio area on BCSN and can be viewed online (click here). Follow live scoring of the competition here or go to the Gymnastics Championship Central site at www.mac-sports.com.

Northern Illinois' third-place finish at last year's MAC Championships, behind Kent State and Central Michigan, tied for the Huskies' best placing ever. NIU, which enters the meet with a 10-7 record on the season and went 3-4 versus MAC competition, has its sights set even higher in 2010, according to head coach Mark Sontag.

"We're going there to win," Sontag said. "When you watch us perform every day and know what we are capable of, you know it can happen and that's what we're trying to accomplish. If practice is any indication, I expect a solid performance all the way through. We have a whole team of athletes poised for a big weekend."

The Huskies are coming off a second-place finish at the Illinois Classic as they finished behind only 13th-ranked Illinois last Saturday at Illinois State. NIU posted its second highest team score of the year with a 192.650 while earning their best vault score of the season to overtake UIC in the final rotation. Northern Illinois will compete in the same event order this week as they have in the past two meets as the Huskies will lead off on uneven parallel bars and then go to balance beam before finishing with floor exercise and vault, respectively.

Sontag believes competing in the same rotation for the third straight week can only add to the Huskies' comfort level.

"We had a couple of options as far as rotation order, but the fact that we have competed in this order for the last two weeks made it a natural choice for us," Sontag said. "The championships are already a different type of meet than you compete in all year, so whatever we can do to make it more familiar is only going to help us."

Individually, Northern Illinois junior Holly Reichard (Palatine, Ill./Palatine Fremd HS) has won MAC titles in each of her first two seasons, claiming the 2008 MAC championship on uneven parallel bars and sharing the balance beam crown with teammate Jennifer Naughton a year ago. Reichard has spent the 2010 season battling a foot injury but owns NIU's top balance beam score of the season. Senior Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township HS) has been Northern Illinois' leader on vault and floor exercise, with season-best scores of 9.825 on both events, while sophomore Ashley Guerra (Orland Park, Ill./Carl Sandburg HS), along with Reichard, claim the top bars routines with top scores of 9.825.

Sontag likes the way his team has trained this week and knows NIU has yet to achieve its top performance, counting at least one miss on one event or another in every meet this year.

"We're still looking to put it all together at one time," Sontag said. "Practices this week have been good. We worked out some things early in the week. Ashley Guerra is looking awesome on bars while Natalie Sutter has had a great week of practice on vault. Natalie Blum, we just expect her to go out and hit every time. Holly is a great competitor and she'll bring her best."

Those gymnasts will anchor the Huskies' line-up at the MAC Championships. For the first time this season, NIU will use the same line-up in back-to-back meets. As the team left DeKalb for the trip to Bowling Green, Sontag's line-up (subject to change) read as follows:
Uneven Parallel Bars: 1. Keiko Tanaka, 2. Jessie Watanabe, 3. Tanya Rachan, 4. Natalie Blum, 5. Ashley Guerra, 6. Holly Reichard
Balance Beam: 1. Shonda Clore, 2. Jessie Watanabe, 3. Ashley Guerra, 4. Sarah Hurley, 5. Holly Reichard, 6. Tanya Rachan
Floor Exercise: 1. Sarah Hurley, 2. Ashley Hurley, 3. Natalie Sutter, 4. Holly Reichard, 5. Tanya Rachan, 6. Natalie Blum
Vault: 1. Sarah Hurley, 2. Shonda Clore, 3. Tanya Rachan, 4. Natalie Sutter, 5. Holly Reichard, 6. Natalie Blum

The MAC will also release the 2010 gymnastics awards during the weekend.

-- NIU -

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