More than a single thorn would be necessary to mar the otherwise rosy season of the NIU women’s gymnastic team.

But that one thorn can still be difficult to ignore.

NIU headed into its last regular season meet—the Mississippi Valley Championships—with a 19-0 season record. Since all four opponents—Southeast Missouri State, Valparaiso, Winona State and Illinois-Chicago—had lost to NIU earlier in the season, the Huskies had every reason to believe they would leave the meet undefeated at 23-0.

Host Southeast Missouri State took the championship by just six-tenths of a point and beat NIU for the first time in their three meetings this season. Some questionable judging might have been the reason that perfect record never happened.

“The judging was a little erratic with four events at a time and four sets of judges,” head coach Bobbie Cesarek said. “The scores were very high on bars and they (judges) were generous on the beam. The vaulting was about right, but I think they judged the floor scores extremely low.”

“When you compete at Southeast Missouri, you have to be as clean as you can be in your routines,” Cesarek added.

After protesting a couple scores, Cesarek managed to have a tenth of a point added to Cindy Hemstad’s score on the floor exercise, but the damage was already done.

“The team was disappointed and maybe a little mad but hopefully it will light a nice fire under the gymnasts,” Cesarek said. “We’ll get to see Southeast Missouri State at regionals in two weeks, so until then we’ll be working hard to make sure we are indeed at our peak.”