The NIU gymnastics team honored their four seniors Friday night, celebrating Natalia Kraus, Alana Anderson, Isabella Sissi and Ellery Werner. The Huskies (1-6) met with Illinois State University (7-3) in their first home meet of the season. Even with strong showings in the vault and floor events, mishaps on the uneven bars and balance beam gave the Redbirds the edge. NIU fell short against ISU, losing 192.275-196.150.
“It was a great, fitting honor for our seniors,” said NIU gymnastics interim head coach Dawnita “Nita” Teague. “Even though we didn’t perform like we wanted to, I felt like there was tons of love and support for our seniors. (There was) admiration and respect for all of the leadership they’ve given the team this year.”
Junior Kiera O’Shea tied for first place on the vault, scoring 9.850. This was her second time scoring above 9.800 on vault this season. O’Shea’s routine helped the Huskies reach a 48.825 event score.
“This week was a lot of recovery and dialing into exactly what we need to do,” O’Shea said. “(We were) sticking to our landings and our form at the beginning of the board, and I think that carried through vault today. My body felt great. My legs felt great, so I knew it was going to be a really good vault day. I’m just really happy that I could go out and show everybody what I could do.”
Sissi competed in vault and uneven bars, scoring 9.700 and 9.425 in the events, respectively. The Huskies chose to honor their seniors at their first home meet of the season, and Sissi said it gives the Huskies a chance to improve before their last meet in the Convocation Center.
“I’m super glad we were able to honor me and my three other senior teammates,” Sissi said. “The senior meet was our first home meet this season, which was really nice honestly. We get three more meets at home to improve. Obviously, after today, there (needs to be) a lot of improvement for me personally, but I know the rest of the team is hungry for more.”
Sophomore Dawsyn Sallee competed in vault, balance beam and floor for NIU, scoring a 29.175 across the board. Facing the Redbirds again in four days, Sallee said the team needs to work on their mental toughness to find success.
“As a team, it’s just mindset,” Sallee said. “I know that our team has the skills, and we could do it. I see it in practice. I see all of the hard work, but it’s really just a mental game at this point. (We need to) put our minds to it, and do what we know we can do.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies go back on the road to meet with the Redbirds on their home turf at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Normal, Illinois.
