DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's gymnastics team has plenty of reasons to be confident going into the Mid-American Conference Championship meet in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
 
Start with last weekend's school record-breaking 196.350 team score in the George Gervin GameAbove Center, site of Saturday's championship meet, marking the second time this season NIU has broken the record. Then there are NIU's recent results in the MAC Championship as the Huskies have recorded the top three finishes in school history at the last three championship meets, including the program's first MAC title in 2019. There are seniors Tara Kofmehl, Morgan Hooper, Kelsey Martz and Gabby Welch – the last class of Huskies remaining who were part of that 2019 team. Add juniors Brookelyn Sears and Natalie Hamp and sophomore Alyssa Al-Ashari, and NIU's line-up returns seven gymnasts and 13 routines who were part of last year's second-place finish.
 
NIU head coach Sam Morreale said that bringing a relatively experienced team – 16 of 24 spots in the tentative line-up are held by juniors and seniors - into the MAC Championships provides a level of comfort, championship experience in a unique meet setting featuring seven teams and high level gymnastics.
 
"Where you rely on the seniors in a meet like this is, first, comfort level," Morreale said. "Second, it's a different meet because there are seven teams so there are three byes. The challenge is how do you handle that 20 to 25-minute break [of a bye], where in a normal meet you just roll into the next event. Our juniors and the seniors – who were on the team that won the MAC as freshmen – they're going to bring that knowledge and understanding. Although the juniors weren't here when we won the championship the first time, we were second last year, so they can tap into that. I definitely wouldn't want to go into a meet like this without those upperclassmen. Not only that, they're great at what they do."
 
Kofmehl and Hamp are returning to the meet as individual MAC Champions as they won titles on vault and bars, respectively, a year ago. The duo was also named first team All-MAC on Friday as they own the top National Qualifying Scores (NQS) in the league on floor exercise (Kofmehl) and uneven parallel bars (Hamp) in 2022.  Hooper and Sears come into the meet as two of the top 10 all-arounders in the league with season highs of 39.050 and 39.375, respectively. They are just a few of the Huskies that could vie for individual crowns Saturday.
 
For the Huskies, the focus will be on going into the meet with the proper mindset, while doing the "little things" that often provide the difference in a championship setting.
 
"The keys for us going into this meet are mindset and comfort level," Morreale said. "If we're relaxed and having fun, we're going to be golden. In terms of the gymnastics, we're good at what we do, the team trains hard and we are as prepared as we're going to be, so let's have some fun.
 
"Things like landings, handstands on bars and precision are important, but I feel like that precision is going to be a result of how comfortable we are. Are we laughing and joking? Are we loose? If we can do that, I think we're going to be in a good spot."
 
While returning to the same site where the Huskies competed less than a week ago provides some of that comfort level, achieving a record-breaking score at Eastern Michigan is even more significant. NIU's 196.350 in the dual meet versus EMU came just weeks after breaking the record for the first time in 2022 on February 4 with a 196.300.
 
"It's hard to quantify how much being at Eastern last weekend will help us [Saturday], but I think it is an advantage," Morreale said. "Obviously, if you're going to go and compete at the venue, and you're going to be on that equipment, there's no better time to do it than the week right before the [Championships]. Then, to go out and do as well as we did and break the school record, obviously we were super comfortable there. We were the team we had talked about being all year and that was exciting to see."
 
NIU went 3-3 in its league dual matches this year and the top five teams have all scored over 196.300 in meets this season. Even if NIU surpasses its team scoring record again, Morreale knows it may not mean a second MAC title, or it might.
 
"The truth of our conference and the truth of this championship is, we can be first or we can be seventh," Morreale said. "The conference is that tough. It is going to come down to who hits the best, who lands the best. It's truly going to come down to those kinds of things, and all we can do is do us."
 
The MAC Championships get underway at 1 p.m. (CT) in Ypsilanti.  NIU will have a bye during the first rotation and then will rotate in traditional order (vault, bars, beam and floor) with additional byes following vault and beam. Click the links above to watch and follow live scoring.  
 
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