DeKalb, Ill. – All that stood between the Northern Illinois University gymnastics team and its first Mid-American Conference Championship was a beam of wood four inches wide that stood four feet off the ground.
In order to overtake Central Michigan in the final rotation of a marathon MAC Championship meet at the NIU Convocation Center, NIU needed a score of 48.575 or higher. When sophomore
Catherine Biddle went up and hit her routine for a 9.825, NIU Head Coach
Sam Morreale took a deep breath.
When
Anna Martucci,
Zoie Schroeder and
Allison Richardson each hit their routines, all with scores of 9.850 as the cheers from the Huskie crowd grew louder and louder, the possibility of breaking through for that first MAC title became real to Morreale.
"By the fourth [routine], I was starting to tear up because it was becoming more and more real," Morreale said describing the emotion in the Huskie corral. "Then Cinny [Lamberti] did enough and stayed on, and Mia knocked it out of the park to solidify it."
Lamberti's 9.600 score on beam put the Huskies over the top, but for good measure, anchor
Mia Lord went up and claimed a MAC individual title on balance beam with a 9.900 to give NIU a 195.975-195.575 margin of victory over second place Central Michigan. In the process, the Huskie beam team broke the school record with a 49.275 on the event and NIU's total score of 195.975 ranks second on the all-time list.
"I can't tout the beam group enough," Morreale said. "It's a hard event. It's four inches and there's not much margin for error, so for them to get up there and knock it out of the park like they did, it's gratifying but also, it's awesome."
The Huskies' day began on arguably its best event, the floor exercise, where NIU notched its first 49-plus score of the meet, led by
Anna Martucci, whose 9.900 on the event stood up throughout the meet as she claimed a share of the MAC individual title on floor exercise. Freshman
Tara Kofmehl's 9.875 was just behind Martucci, while Richardson and
Amanda Bartemio each tallied a 9.850 and senior
Emily Basara had a 9.825 for a 49.300 team score.
"Starting on floor actually bothered me more than ending on beam, because we're so good on floor that you worry if you're going to get rewarded," Morreale said. "The judges did a really good job of judging us and allowing us to score what we scored, which then kind of helped us carry through the meet. From there, vault is not our best event but we did just enough there and on bars."
Bartemio and Lamberti led the way for the Huskies on vault with scores of 9.825 and 9.800, respectively, as each earned a Top 10 finish on the event. Bartemio also posted one of NIU's two best scores on uneven parallel bars with a 9.775, while freshman
Morgan Hooper scored a 9.825 on bars to tie for fourth overall.
NIU totaled a 48.725 on vault and a 48.675 on bars, with both scores good for third among all seven teams on the day, while the Huskies' balance beam and floor exercise scores led all teams on the day.
In addition to her individual title on floor exercise, Martucci won her second consecutive MAC Specialist of the Year Award and she and Lord both made the MAC All-Tournament Team, just days after they were named first and second team All-MAC.
Morreale said the championship was the culmination of not just one season, but years of work by this team and those who came before, who helped build the program. Many of the alumni in attendance joined Morreale and his team in shedding tears at the watershed accomplishment.
"This has been a long time brewing," said Morreale, who also picked up MAC Coach of the Year honors for 2019. "This is my eighth season as head coach. From the season I started, it's been a slow build and we've gotten better and gotten more competitive with each group. Every senior class has left that legacy and that's been so important in us getting here.
"We started this journey last year when we took second. We talked about this day. We talked about this is where we wanted to be, we talked about we could do this, and then the freshmen came in and they were right there with us.
"This championships has been a long time coming, we know we've been knocking on the door, we know we've been getting close. To watch this group finally step over that line is just the coolest feeling ever.
-- NIU --
