With the State of Illinois Classic one week away and the NCAA Central Regional Championships close to a month away, the NIU women’s gymnastics team has a lot to gain in the near future.

But first thing’s first.

Head Coach Bobbie Cesarek likes her team to be focused and takes one meet at a time. Little does she know that it just might be easier said than done.

The Huskies are ranked in the Top-15 of the nation’s Division I gymnastics teams by the National Coach’s Association and are practically a shoe-in to qualify at the NCAA Regional Championship. If NIU performs as well as it has been, it could mean a trip to the nationals.

“The girls are really just looking forward to next Saturday’s state meet and preparing like we have all season … making our next meet our top priority,” Cesarek said. “Hosting the state meet and doing as well as we have been means the team is really going to be pumped.”

Although the team is officially listed as No. 15 in the nation, that ranking includes a less-than-par score from the beginning of the year and excluded a “187-plus” score against the University of Maryland. For that reason, Cesarek said the Huskies are probably ranked closer to No. 10.

“It is very exciting to be ranked as high as we are. We finished 27th last season, so this year’s ranking is tremendous,” Cesarek said. “It’s a real tribute to the hard work the team has been putting in all this year.”

Unfortunately, Cesarek does not expect their ranking to go much higher. With bigger schools such as UCLA to contend with, talent is not the only consideration. NIU lacks the money and coaching staff that some of the bigger schools are able to utilize.

“Little NIU just can’t compete at that level of the top, top schools,” Cesarek said.

But Cesarek is not fooling anyone. NIU is far from allowing themselves to be intimidated by those “top, top” schools, let alone lose any confidence in their ability.

“We already have in our minds that we’ve qualified for the regionals. There are very few teams I see knocking us out of the race, ” Cesarek said. “Now we’re just going to see if we can improve those minor details and be aggressive at regionals to qualify for nationals.”

NIU has a week to prepare for the long-awaited Illinois State Classic held Saturday, March 2. NIU will host Illinois State, University of Illinois, and University of Illinois-Chicago in the best-of-the-state battle at Chick Evans Field House.