LEBANON, Tenn. – Northern Illinois University gymnasts won three events and the Huskies hit for team scores above their average on three events, but fell to Southeast Missouri, 195.800-194.775, Friday night at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic.
 
NIU opened the meet by scoring a 49.025 on vault to record the fourth-highest team score in school history on vault, led by senior Amanda Bartemio who earned a career high 9.875 to win the event. She was followed by Tara Kofmehl and Cinny Lamberti, who each scored a 9.850 to tie for second, while Tennessee native Gabby Welch added a 9.825.
 
"Honestly, Amanda did the best vault I've ever seen her do… she absolutely stuck it," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "That 9.875 score was well-deserved after a great vault. Then, Tara's vault was really good, Gabby did a good vault and Cinny was solid as usual. The way they finished from Amanda on, I was super-impressed."
 
The Huskies struggled on bars. After a solid start, including a 9.800 by Nina Martucci that tied for third, Brookelyn Sears suffered an injury on her landing and the next two Huskies could not hit. Despite counting two falls, NIU still managed to score a 47.825.
 
NIU rebounded on balance beam, one of the Huskies' traditionally strongest events. Junior Mia Lord capped off the second team score of 49 or better on the night with a 9.900 to get the win, just .025 ahead of teammate Morgan Hooper whose 9.875 was her top beam score of the season and tied her career high. Senior Cinny Lamberti added a 9.825 to tie for third.
 
"Beam is a good event for us, we're so solid there," Morreale said. "For Mia, it's funny to say but when she goes up and nails her routine for a 9.9, it's become what we expect from her, it's just how she works and how she goes about her business every day."  
 
The Huskies closed out the meet on floor exercise with a 48.925 as NIU got hits from all five of its gymnasts on the event.
 
"I was impressed with the girls on floor to go five up and five down and all hit when you have that extra pressure," Morreale said. "We're just so solid on floor, there aren't any worry spots there."
 
Hooper, NIU's sophomore all-arounder, totaled a 38.850 to record the best all-around total of her career. 
 
Morreale said NIU's 194.775 team score, even with the team's issues on bars, will help NIU's national rankings.
 
"This score will definitely help our NQS [National Qualifying Score], it will replace one of our low scores so this is where we can start making some moves and make some headway moving up the ranks," he said. "This team never quits – it's a typical Huskie attitude.  Even when you struggle, we still manage to come back strong. We're can definitely build off of this heading into Sunday's meet versus Ball State."
 
NIU takes on the Cardinals Sunday at 2 p.m. in the NIU Convocation Center in its annual Senior Day Meet. The Huskies will honor five seniors at the conclusion of the meet. Admission is free.
 
Although NIU suffered a loss to go to 4-5 on the season, Morreale was complimentary of the Tennessee Collegiate Classic and its organizers, Meet Authority.
 
"This was a really good event," Morreale said. "There was super energy, a great crowd of club kids, there was a former UCLA gymnast and Olympian serving as emcee to pump up thee crowd and it was just a really fun and cool meet."
 
-- NIU --