DeKALB, Ill. – Buoyed by the best performance by the Huskie beam team since 2006, the Northern Illinois University gymnastics team bounced back on balance beam and floor exercise to earn a 193.350-192.050 victory over Illinois State Friday on Senior Night in the Convocation Center.
 
After a disastrous performance on uneven parallel bars in the second rotation, the Huskies trailed the Redbirds by 1.275 points. NIU immediately went to work on balance beam with five of the six gymnasts tying or exceeding their season and career high scores for a total of 49.175. The beam score was the highest by a Huskie team since 2006, tied for the third-best all-time, and was .075 shy of the top team beam mark ever at NIU.
 
Catherine Biddle (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central) and Cinny Lamberti (Grayslake, Ill./Grayslake HS)
both earned scores of 9.825 on balance beam to tie their career best marks.  Senior Anna Martucci (Clarkston, Mich./Our Lady of the Lakes HS) had a personal best 9.850, as did anchor Mia Lord (McCordsville, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern HS), whose 9.90 was the highest beam score of the season for the Huskies and ties the eighth-highest beam total all-time.
 
"I felt on beam, we did a great job of settling into us and obviously going above 49 on beam put us back in the hunt," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "I did feel on the first two events, we were feeling the nerves of senior meet.  We were pressing, we were trying too hard for [the seniors]. Bars was uncharacteristic for us. Bars is a solid, confident, great event for us so it was disheartening to see that. I told [the team] after bars, let's just restart this meet and get after it on the next two events.
 
By the time NIU finished its day on beam, the Huskies had cut the Redbirds' lead to .725 points, 145.025-144.300, as NIU headed to its best event, floor exercise.
 
The floor squad, which included seniors Martucci, Ally Ferber (Woodbury, N.Y./Syosset HS) and Paige Nicholas (Cleveland, Ohio/Lutheran West HS), came through with a 49.050 with four scores of 9.800 or higher, led by freshman Tara Kofmehl (Mesa, Ariz./Red Mountain HS)with a 9.850, followed by Ferber's 9.825. Meanwhile, Illinois State struggled on balance beam to open the door for the Huskies to claim the win. NIU improved to 11-4 on the season with the victory, and wrapped up a 7-1 home campaign. 
 
"We're good on floor," Morreale said. "We finished strong on floor and that was what we were trying to do so I felt really good about that. I'm super proud to see them come back, and I was proud of how we vaulted, we had a good start to the meet on vault."
 
In addition to Lord's win on balance beam, Kofmehl shared first place on floor exercise and Lamberti won vault as she tied her career high with a 9.850 on that event.
 
The meet was the final regular season home meet of the season for the Huskies, who now travel to the State of Illinois Meet in Champaign next Saturday, March 9, before taking on Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant on March 15.
 
While Friday's meet represents the last regular season competition for NIU in the Convocation Center this year, the seniors and the rest of the Huskies will play host to the 2019 MAC Gymnastics Championships in the facility on March 23. Tickets for the MAC Championships are on sale now for $10 for adults, $5 for youth and admission is free for all Mid-American Conference students. 
       
-- NIU --