YPSILANTI, Mich. – The Northern Illinois University women's gymnastics team heads into next week's Mid-American Conference Championship riding a wave of momentum after breaking the NIU team scoring record for the second time this season in a 196.350-195.375 win over Eastern Michigan Sunday. The win came in the same gym – EMU's George Gervin GameAbove Center – where seven teams will vie for the league title next Saturday.
 
"This was about the best dress rehearsal [for the MAC Championships] we could run before next week on all levels," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale. "We are super happy with how it all came together. It's very cool to break the school record for the second time this year, and it was just fun today to watch us do what we intend to do.  We were just super loose today, super comfortable, everyone was enjoying themselves, and we're a lot better when we do that and have fun with it.  It wasn't perfect, but we had a really, really good meet."
 
Seven Huskies set or tied their career highs and five different gymnasts won event titles as NIU got strong performances on all four events with event scores ranging from 48.925 to 49.250. The Huskies' 196.350 total broke the school record of 196.300 set earlier this season in a home tri-meet versus Lindenwood and Wisconsin-Whitewater. Versus EMU, 15 of NIU's 24 routines scored a 9.800 or higher on the day.
 
All-arounder Brookelyn Sears (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville HS) accounted for four of those 9.800-plus scores as she placed in the top four on every event to take the all-around title with a 39.350 total.  Sears was second on vault (9.825), third on uneven parallel bars (9.850), and tied for fourth on balance beam (9.825) and on floor exercise (9.850).
 
"For Brookelyn to score over 9.825 on every event is really solid," Morreale said. "It's a testament to her training. She put it all together moving into next week, that's the way you want to do it.  For her, for Natalie [Hamp] on bars and Tara [Kofmehl] on floor, if you want to place [at MACs], you're going to have to hit those types of scores."
 
NIU closed out the meet with a season high 49.125 on balance beam with freshman Ellery Werner (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander HS) earning a career best 9.875 to win the event. Alyssa Al-Ashari (Lansing, Mich./Grand Ledge HS) tied for second on beam with a 9.85 and sophomore Kendall George (Westerville, Ohio/Westerville Central HS) tied her career high by starting the rotation with a 9.800.
 
The Huskies recorded their second-best team vault score of the season with a 48.925 with four Huskies setting or tying their career best vault scores. Senior Gabby Welch (Greenbrier, Tenn./Aaron Academy) won the event with a 9.850 and Sears' score tied her career best, while Huskies Isabella Sissi (Blaine, Minn./Mounds View HS) and Isabelle West (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North HS) both went 9.800 to tie for third.
 
"I don't know that it was our best vault run, but we got some good landings in," Morreale said. "It's nice when you walk into a meet and you do it like that and get the scores you deserve. If we're going to have a weak event, it's on vault, but if we can be clean and work landings like we did today, score in the high 48s, we have enough on the other events to get us where we need to be."
 
Junior Natalie Hamp (Ionia, Mich./Ionia HS) led NIU on bars as she tied for first with a 9.900 score, leading the bars squad to a 49.050 total and Tara Kofmehl (Mesa, Ariz./Red Mountain HS) won floor exercise with a 9.925, the fourth time she earned that career best score this season. Sissi recorded a career high 9.825 on floor, while freshman Alana Anderson (Joliet, Ill./Joliet West HS) joined Sears in a tie for fourth with a 9.850.
 
"The meet next week will come down to who hits, so to do that coming in your lead-in meet is always super positive," Morreale said. "It's going to take something in the 196 range [to win] next week and almost every team in the MAC has hit that score. The hope is confidence-wise we come back here next week, we know the set-up of the gym, we've been on the equipment, and we pick up where we left off."
 
Senior Morgan Hooper (Lincoln, Neb./St. Pius X) also reached the 39.000 mark in the all-around as she tied for third, topped by a 9.800 score on floor exercise.
 
NIU returns to Ypsilanti next Saturday, March 19, for the MAC Championships. Competition begins at 1 p.m. CT and can be viewed on ESPN3.
 
-- NIU --