While there was plenty of coed gymnastics action to watch at Chick Evans Field House Friday and Sunday, many eyes were on the NIU women tumblers.

Both the NIU men’s and women’s squads were hosts Friday night, but the women stole the show. The women Huskies defeated top-rated Division II Southeast Missouri State in a one-sided 178.60-170.15 victory. In their triangular competition, the NIU men finished in second place by scoring 271.90, behind Illinois at 284.45, while Iowa State took third with a 264.30 tally.

The women did not end their weekend with one victory. The Huskies competed in a triangular on Sunday against Valparaiso and Winona and again won the top spot with a score of 179.85. Winona’s 168.75 mark placed it in second followed by Valparaiso’s 146.45. NIU came within .25 of tying the school record of 180.10. NIU’s Martha Unger won the all-around crown both Friday and Sunday with 36.55 and 36.70, respectively.

“Everything is perfect,” women’s coach Bobbie Cesarek said. “Except we have got to stay on beam.”

Although the women did not set a new record in total team competition, the Huskies did set new marks in two events. During Sunday’s vault competition, NIU changed the school record for the third time this season with a 45.60 standard. Friday’s top score of 45.25 on the uneven bars was bettered Sunday with a 45.60 tally.

Cesarek said she believed three of the four events were clean and was pleased with her squad’s progress. She said she was impressed with her team’s confidence on the floor exercise, adding that the positive attitude is a good influence on judging. NIU finds its toughest event is the balance beam.

“Each girl is going to spend a minimum of one hour on the beam during the next three days of practice,” Cesarek said. “We just have to get used to being up there. It is not that we can’t perform skills, because when beam was great all our other events were lousy. Now when everything else is great, beam is lousy.”

While the women want to improve their performance on the beam, the NIU men’s team wants to improve consistency. Coach Chuck Ehrlich did not think his team did bad, considering the squad is missing two key performers, but he said he would like to see his men do better.

“Overall, it went quite well considering we are filling in slots with high eights or low nines instead of low nines or high nines,” Ehrlich said, referring to the absence of Thomas Koll and Jens Furst, who went back to West Germany for the Olympic qualification process. “We were shaky on the high bar, but I think we improved our floor and pommel horse since the Penn State meet.”

The NIU women were not the only ones to set records. All-American Carlos Fulcher improved his two-week-old record to 57.35 in winning the all-around title. Fulcher’s all-around included a first-place finish in vaulting with 9.55 and a 9.75 tie for the blue ribbon for the still rings with Illinois’ David Zeddies.