Top-caliber athletes dot the lineups of several NIU teams. Here are just a few to look for this season.

Cathy Holmes is a strong catalyst for the NIU volleyball team. The senior helped lead her squad last season to a 19-16 overall finish and a second-place standing in the North Star Conference.

The 6-foot-1 middleblocker obtained five individual honors, which included being named NSC Athlete of the Week twice. She also was named on the NSC First-Team and was named to the All-Tournament teams in the NIU Huskie Invitational and the Illinois-Chicago Invitational.

As the team’s most valuable player, Holmes finished the 1987 season ranked 14th in the nation in blocking according to the American Volleyball Coaches Association Rankings. She averaged 1.580 blocks per game.

FAnton Kossakowski has a chance to advance farther in this year’s NCAA Wrestling Championship.

The sophomore ended last season with a loss in the tourney on the first day of competition. The NIU Wrestler of the Year ended with a 30-9-1 finish, making him the lone Huskie wrestler to compete in the championship.

Lisa Foss is a leader and a shooter who provides strength to the women’s basketball team. Only a junior, the 5-foot-7 guard has already reached a milestone in her career. Her hot touch on the court has allowed her to enter the NIU record books as the youngest (19) Huskie to break 1,000 points.

The men’s gymnastics squad has four returnees who competed in the 1988 NCAA championships. Wilson Aihara, Carlos Fulcher, Gene Margiotta and Thomas Koll represented the Huskies in Nebraska last April.

Fulcher will enter his third year as an all-arounder after he finished fifth in the National Independent Gymnastics Tournament. Aihara followed in the eighth spot. While Koll represents NIU as an all-arounder, Margiotta will use his talent on floor exercise.

Women’s gymnastics coach Bobby Cesarek recently obtained a three-year high-school letterwinner in Lori Lebo. Lebo’s honors include being named First Team All-State in Virginia and First Team All-Metropolitan as named by the Washington Post.