Women's Gymnastics | February 16

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University gymnastics team (8-2, 3-1) returns to the Convocation Center for its last home meet of the season to host defending Mid-American Conference Champions Eastern Michigan University (4-2, 2-0), Friday at 6 p.m.
 
"We're chasing high scores all around," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "Eastern is a great test for us. They're ranked higher than us. They've been scoring higher than us. We regularly talk about those higher scores, and we've just got to go out and not be intimidated by them. They have a lot of really good athletes on their team, but so do we. We'll see who can land and stick the best."
 
The Huskies go into the meet coming off of a 195.350 season high in the win at Western Michigan last Sunday. Coach Morreale and the gymnasts are hoping to improve on last week's score this week against the dominant Eagles.
 
NIU has been chasing their season high balance beam score that was set the first week of competition, but were finally able to match the 48.725 team beam score on last Sunday's trip to Kalamazoo, Mich.
 
The uneven bars squad improved the season high to 49.225, ranking third in school history. The Huskies are set on improving all-around to compete with the EMU Eagles this week.
 
"For the second half of the season, the goal is to keep building off what we've done and keep trying to hit the way we do in practice each day," said Morreale. "We just need to keep showing what we can do in competition."
 
The coaches and support staff will announce the seniors after the meet and after event winners are announced. Coach Morreale will distribute roses to the NIU Silverette's seniors and EMU seniors before the gymnastics' seniors are announced.
 
This season the Huskies have six seniors who will be recognized. They include bars specialists Jamyra Carter (Ypsilanti, Mich./Huron) and Megan Gilliam (Fishers, Ind./Fishers), balance beam specialists Taylor Crumley (Lincolnshire, Ill./Adlai E. Stevenson) and Megan Greenfield (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South), bars and floor specialist Courtney Dowdell (Lynwood, Ill./Thornton Fractional South) as well as beam and floor specialist Brittany Wenzel (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson).
 
"Senior night is definitely bittersweet," said Morreale. "It's incredibly hard to be a student athlete. I think they get a lot of credit for the things they do, but it's a grind. Being able to get through four years and also be really good students at the same time is a testament to them and their parents. These six that are graduating have been a part of the movement forward and up the rankings as far as setting personal records, event records, team records. These six have left their mark on NIU gymnastics."
 
Fans that cannot make the meet on Friday can follow along via Live Stats or by watching Live Streaming with a subscription.
 
-NIU-