DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's gymnastics team celebrated its five 2021 seniors with a 194.825-194.775 Senior Meet victory over Kent State Saturday at the NIU Convocation Center.
 
With the win, NIU closed out its Mid-American Conference dual meet season with a 3-3 league record and are 3-5 overall.
 
"That was a testament to the kids and their fight," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "Today was about the seniors, we wanted to celebrate them today. It was good to see us stay in it and fight all the way to the end, it took the last score to get the win. We weren't perfect, but we got after it. Kent is a great team so to be able to come out on top was great."
 
The Huskies tied their season-high score as NIU gymnasts claimed individual event titles on vault, bars and floor exercise. NIU earned a season-best 48.975 on floor exercise, led by junior Nicolette DiPrisco (Aberdeen, N.J./Red Bank Catholic HS) who won the event with a 9.875, and all-arounder Tara Kofmehl (Mesa, Ariz./Red Mountain HS), who took third with a 9.850 mark. Senior Mia Lord (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern HS) added a career high 9.800 on floor to take fourth.
 
Senior Zoie Schroeder (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park HS) won vault with a 9.800 followed by Kofmehl's 9.775 as NIU started with a 48.575 mark on the event. Sophomore Natalie Hamp (Ionia, Mich./Ionia HS) claimed her fourth win of the year on uneven parallel bars as she tied her season-high score of 9.875. Brookelyn Sears tied for second on bars with a 9.800 as the Huskies scored a 48.775 on that event and led the Golden Flashes 97.350-97.200 halfway through the meet.
 
"Our goal is to keep climbing the mountain, keep getting better," Morreale said. "We had five solid counting scores on each event which is a positive, and we overcame some adversity when we had early misses and the rest of the line-up came through."  
 
Senior Catherine Biddle (Grand Rapids, Mich./ led the way for NIU on balance beam as she tied her career high score of 9.825 to take second on the event. On the day, seniors Lord, Biddle, Schroeder, Gabby Welch (Greenbrier, Tenn./Aaron Academy) and Lauren Gomes (Dix Hills, N.Y./Commack HS) accounted for nine "hit" routines.
 
"All of the seniors had solid days, you want to see them perform well on senior night," Morreale said. "Sometimes there's a lot more emotion on a day like today. They've been a solid group since they got here. They contributed just as much in practice, on the road and in the intangibles as they do in meets. We always want each class to leave the program better than they found it, and they have lived up to it."
 
NIU returns to action next Friday, March 5 in the final home meet of the 2021 season as they host Illinois State and Iowa State in a tri-meet at 6 p.m. (CT). 
 
-- NIU --