“At Kent State the first weekend of the year, what we were able to do there as we were really testing our depth, that might have been the biggest win of our season,” Morreale said. “That win was a wake-up call to us as a team. We thought we knew what we had going into the season, but to get that win, to solidify that belief and give us that confidence, we felt good about where we were.”
That confidence was tested over the next two weeks as the Huskies struggled to put four consistent events together in losses to Western Michigan and Illinois State with scores hovering in the 192-193 range.
“The loss at Illinois State hurt a lot because the wheels came off, we were not who we had trained to be,” Morreale said. “We did some soul searching after ISU going into the meet versus CMU. They’re (CMU) a perennial powerhouse, they were picked to win the MAC, but we also had people coming back and were back home.”
The Huskies’ win over the Chippewas – and NIU’s first 195+ score of the season – restored the team’s belief. More importantly, after going through the letdown after the Kent State meet, the gymnasts were determined not to make the same mistake. The team came into the next competition – at Eastern Michigan on February 7 – as energetic and focused as Morreale had seen.
“That was our meet of the year,” he said. “Our energy, the passion, how they pulled for each other… I don’t know if it was because we had the week off coming up, but everything fell into place.”
When it was over, the Huskies had posted the second-highest score in school history – a 196.125 that was just .025 off the school record set at CMU in 2017. NIU closed out the meet with a 49.325 team total on balance beam to break the Huskies’ all-time best. Now Morreale’s only worry was that NIU would lose its edge and its momentum during the upcoming off week.