Although Saturday’s men’s alumni gymnastics meet was held to get the NIU squad ready for competition next semester, the reactions of the crowd as well as the players kept the meet “in good humor.”

The gymnasts entered each event with intense seriousness, but an occasional slip-up or unexpected vault during the events drew laughter from the audience which enlightened the otherwise Olympic-like atmosphere.

“It was neat to see how the alumni performed when they were here,” said NIU gymnast Carlos Fulcher, who was named All-American in vaulting last year.

The Huskies squeaked past their opponents in the Ranck-Sorensen Memorial Alumni Intrasquad Meet scoring 166.40 to the alumni’s 164.90.

“It’s a good routine with some very good gymnastics,” said NIU Coach Chuck Ehrlich. “We have talent on our team at the national level. No team should blow us away, and we should be in almost every meet.”

Of the 17 gymnasts on the squad, only two are upperclassmen. But Ehrlich does not feel the youth of his team will have an effect on the season’s outcome.

“Most of the guys are freshmen and sophomores, but there’s no reason for them not to do well,” Ehrlich said. “We just have to stay healthy.”

The team did not start off on the healthy side when second leading scorer for the Huskies, Erik Solky, fell during his dismount from the horizontal bars and hit his foot between the mats.

“The bottom mats were split,” said Ehrlich. “It’s like dropping 18 to 20 feet onto a wooden floor.” Solky apparently suffered a severe heel bruise.

Leading in scoring for the Huskies in floor exercise competition was Gene Margiotta with a 9.6. Carlos Silvestre had a 9.5 to top the alumni.

Fulcher, along with Dale Schroeder and Doug Foerch for the alumni, tied at 9.2 on the pommel horse.

Jim Nagy, who was All-American and third in the nation on the still rings when he was at NIU, swept the event with a 9.7 score for the alumni. Fulcher came in second with a 9.6 and also took first in the vault with a 9.5.

The parallel bars brought on another tie with Solky and Nagy scoring a 9.3. Solky also claimed first on the horizontal bars with a 9.4 before his injury.

“I think we can expect a lot this season, and we’ll do fairly well,” said Fulcher. “Some of the freshmen have national experience, and that will help us.”

The Huskies will host the Mixed Pairs Invitational at 7:30 Saturday in Chick Evans Field House.