Women's Gymnastics | March 23

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University gymnastics team heads into the postseason to compete at the Central Michigan McGuirk Arena in the Mid-American Conference Championship, on Saturday. The competition will begin at 1 p.m. CDT.
 
"There really is not a favorite [team] in this conference right now," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "There are some that are ranked higher than others, but it's going to be a dog fight based on who competes the cleanest and has the most hits. We have a pretty challenging rotation, but for us, our goal is to hit all four, so where we start and end doesn't really matter. We're definitely going to put all of our cards on the table and see where that takes us."
 
The rotation order for the Huskies on Saturday will begin with them on floor. The team will then have a bye before heading to vault. NIU will sit for another rotation before heading to beam and bars and finish with another bye.
 
"We're excited," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "It's been a long season of us growing and doing a lot of really great things. We've scored over 195.000 more times this year than we ever have, so we feel like we've definitely raised our level of gymnastics and how we compete. We want to put that perfect meet together that we've been working towards."
 
The Huskies have recorded a historic season with seven scores of 195.000 or higher. NIU recorded the second and third highest team scores for the program of 195.725 (vs. Western Michigan, March 4) and 195.700 (at Bowling Green, March 17).
 
On the individual side, between junior Anna Martucci (Clarkston, Mich./Our Lady of the Lakes) with eight scores of 9.900 or high on floor and senior all-around competitors Ashley Potts (Oakwood Hills, Ill./Prairie Ridge) and Katherine Prentice  (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) split seven more between the two, the Huskies have a total of 15.
 
Martucci recorded the highest event score in over two decades as the Huskies' took on Western Michigan in the last home meet of the season, hitting a 9.975.
 
Potts recorded a 9.900 scores on three events this season with three on the uneven parallel bars, another on beam and her final of five on floor. Her career high 9.950 on the bars was hit in the NIU home win over Ball State (Feb. 25).
 
Prentice hit the Huskies highest beam score of the season with a 9.925 last Saturday at Bowling Green, hit her career high bars score of 9.900 against Central Michigan at home Jan. 28.
 
Huskies fans can catch the competition in many ways this weekend with two separate video opportunities available. ESPN3 will be broadcasting the meet on WatchESPN.com as they try to show as much of the meet as possible, and CMU will be live streaming every event on its website ($8.50), so that fans can switch from event to event as a way to not missing any routines. Live stats are also available.
 
-NIU-
 
 
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