Chalking up an outstanding premier appearance at the NCAA Central Regional Championships was the objective, but the NIU women’s gymnastic team had to chalk it up as experience.

The Huskies took a disappointing fifth-place finish in the seven team regional meet held at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., Saturday.

Given the quality of competition at the meet, NIU had little reason to be ashamed of its performance.

“Being in a meet like this for the first time really showed,” head coach Bobbie Cesarek said. “We fell more than I can remember with two falls on bars and five falls on beam. It wasn’t like us, but the girls had really bad jitters.”

A case of the jitters was not the only problem facing NIU. Larger teams like the University of Alabama were simply amazing.

UA claimed the team title with a new NCAA scoring record of 195.575. Runner-up and host Auburn, scored a school record 192.15, while Louisiana State University took third with a 191.75 mark.

Adding insult to injury, Southeast Missouri State eluded NIU’s drive for “revenge” by placing fourth with a 189.025. SEMU was the only team to beat NIU during the regular season and managed to do so by just six-tenths of a point.

The Huskies barely slid into the fifth position let alone beat SEMU, with a 186.925 that was only .25 points ahead of the University of Missouri who took sixth.

The University of Iowa completed the field with a 186.425.

Despite NIU’s rather low score, Vicki Thimgan felt good about the team’s overall performance.

“We went in ranked fifth and came out fifth so we did what everyone expected us to,” Thimgan said. “I think we made a really good impression and Auburn said they couldn’t wait to compete against us again next year at regionals.”

Although there were no individual winners for the Huskies, Thimgan and her teammates still managed to turn in some solid routines.

Thimgan led NIU with an 11th place tie in the all-around competition with a 37.95 and a ninth place finish on the balance beam with a 9.725.

According to Cesarek, Thimgan should be in a good position to earn an individual spot at nationals as an all-arounder. Thimgan will not find out until late Monday afternoon however, whether or not she qualified.

Also noteworthy was senior Martha Unger who made the most of her gymnastic finale with an impressive 9.7 on floor that was good enough for a ninth-place finish. Unger also put in the best of NIU’s entries on the uneven parallel bars with an 18th place 9.575 while Lori Lebo’s 9.625 was the best of NIU’s vault scores.

“Our vault scores were really low, but we were the first team on vault so it goes with the territory,” Cesarek said. “You can’t go into a meet like that and let it get away. We just didn’t hit our events like we have been.”