The Gymnastics picked up three wins Friday in a quad meet against Lindenwood, Kent State and Seattle Pacific. The Huskies recorded a final score of 194.500 followed by Lindenwood with a score of 194.350, and Kent State and Seattle Pacific with scores of 192.075 and 190.625 respectively.

{{tncms-inline account=”NIU Gymnastics” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/SI6Ek2Li3M">pic.twitter.com/SI6Ek2Li3M</a></p>— NIU Gymnastics (@Niugymnastics) <a href="https://twitter.com/Niugymnastics/status/1091519952270622721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2019</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/Niugymnastics/status/1091519952270622721″ type=”twitter”}}

The victories leave the Huskies with a 3-1 Mid-American Conference record and 8-3 overall. Head Coach Sam Morreale said this meet left room for NIU to improve.

“Overall we fought all day long,” Head Coach Sam Morreale said. “It definitely wasn’t our best meet but it was a good meet for us.”

The Huskies placed third in vault with an overall score of 48.450. Lindenwood won the event with a total score of 48.850, while Kent State took second with a score of 48.475.

First-year Tara Kofmehl led a trio of Huskies who scored a 9.750 or better in vault. Lindenwood sophomores Aleah Turon and Courtney Mitchell took first in the event with a score of 9.850, followed by their teammate, sophomore Jordan Boogerd in third with a score of 9.800.

Morreale said the team’s intensity comes from practice and they try to replicate that in their meets.

“One thing we talk about is not trying harder in a meet,” Morreale said. “We want them to go hard in practice and then we just do that in a meet. We did a lot of really good gymnastics, we just didn’t land well.”

The Huskies won the uneven parallel bars event with an overall score of 48.775, with Seattle Pacific coming in second with a score of 48.275. Kent State and Lindenwood followed with scores of 48.125 and 48.000 respectively. 

First-year Morgan Hooper tied for first in the bars with Kent State senior Dara Williams posting a career high score of 9.825, helping her team take the event.

The Huskies finished third on balance beam with a score of 48.200 behind Lindenwood in second with a score of 48.600 and Kent State in first with a score of 48.900.

Hooper performed well leading the way for the Huskies placing first in the event with a score of 9.875, giving her a second career high of the meet. Lindenwood senior Andavea Alexander came in second in the event with a score of 9.850.

Morreale was proud of Hooper’s ability to get comfortable in front of an audience.

“[Hooper] settled into what she can do,” Morreale said. “Getting out in front of people always changes the emotional side of it, so she did a really good job on bars and beam of conquering that.”

On the floor exercise, the Huskies posted a 49.075 to solidify the win. Lindenwood finished closest to NIU with a score of 48.900.

Senior Anna Martucci finished first in the floor exercise with a score of 9.875, followed by junior Amanda Bartemio taking second with a score of 9.825. This meet marked the third time Martucci has won the floor exercise this season. Lindenwood junior Ryan Henry tied Bartemio for second place.

The Huskies are back in action and hit the road for their next three meets starting at 6:30 p.m Friday against Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.