For the third straight year, NIU women’s basketball coach Jane Albright set her hook in the recruiting waters and landed a dominating post player for her efforts.

This week’s signing of 6-foot 3-inch Dianna Wingis follows the additions of 6-2 Carol Owens in 1985-86 and 6-1 Tammy Hinchee last season.

Wingis hails from Clark High School in Hammond, Ind., where she earned First Team All-State honors from Hoosier Basketball Magazine. Albright said she likes how her 1987-88 front line has fallen together.

“Dianna will challenge any player we have, and that’s what we need,” Albright said Tuesday. “We need someone to challenge Carol and Tammy.”

A look at the roster sets up quite a competition.

The Huskies anticipate the return of Owens from reconstructive knee surgery and another strong showing from Hinchee, who tied sophomore Gena Stubbs for second on the squad in scoring average with 14.6 points per game.

Both Owens and Hinchee came out of high school and started at center for NIU. Both led the squad in rebounds, with Owens grabbing 218 boards in 1985-86 and Hinchee ending with 281 this year.

But according to Albright, nothing is written in stone on the Huskie frontcourt, since Wingis brings an impressive portfolio to DeKalb.

“She’s a true center, obviously, position-wise,” Albright said. “I think she’s one of the most athletic 6-3 players I’ve ever seen. She’s very agile.”

Wingis finished her prep career with 1,130 points—the first women’s player to break the 1,000-point mark—and 1,004 rebounds. She averaged 20.8 ppg and 13.8 rebounds per game in her senior season.

Albright said the stats that most impressed her about Wingis were her season and career field goal percentages. Wingis shot .648 from the field in her final season to finish with a career percentage of .579. She also notched 55 double-digit scoring games.

Although Albright called Wingis, along with Lisa Foss in 1986, “the most highly-recruited player we’ve ever had,” she also said NIU was one of the first schools to give the Hoosier star a serious look.

“What happened was, last summer I had a friend of mine—a coach in South Carolina—call me, and (the coach) quoted someone as saying (Wingis was) the best post player in the state,” Albright said. “She had never been to summer camp, so no one had anything on her. We went right after her.”

Albright praised assistant coach Lynnette Robinson for her efforts in landing Wingis, who paid an official visit to NIU as well as attending the Huskies’ Jan. 24 win over Illinois-Chicago at Chicago.

Albright said NIU and Purdue were the final two schools on Wingis’ list.