Gymnast Sandy Menard set out to do something no other athlete at NIU had ever had the chance to do: win a national championship.

“This is the happiest moment of my life,” Menard said, according to an April 5, 1998, Northern Star article.

Menard broke NIU history with a 38.800 performance at the NCAA Central Regional Gymnastics Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala. that weekend.

“Sandy is statistically the best gymnast NIU has ever had,” then-women’s gymnastics coach Bobbie Cesarek said.

On Oct. 9, 2015, Sandy Menard was inducted into the 2015 hall of fame class. The 1998 Mid-American Conference Uneven Bars champion is the only Huskie women’s gymnast to earn a bid to the NCAA Championships.

Menard achieved a mark of 39.40 in the all-around at the 1995 Midwest Individual Championships, a mark that was then a school-record and still ranks tied for second-best in NIU history. In 1996, Menard scored a 9.925 on the vault, a score that remains a school record today.