Over spring break, NIU gymnastics participated in the Eastern Michigan Invitational and the State of Illinois Championships.

In both meets, the Huskies did not put up solid scores all around as they struggled with bars in both events as well as beams in the Illinois Championships meet.

NIU coach Sam Morreale said there were still positives despite not getting the scores they were looking for.

“The good thing for us is we got to experience two quad meets right in a row,” Morreale said. “It’s good for us to get that in leading up to the MAC Championships. It’s about getting used to focusing in that situation, and we struggled a little bit in getting the meet started.”

NIU senior Tanya Rachan also noted the difference in the quadrangular meets, especially in the Eastern Michigan meet.

“Everything was a little bit more hectic,” Rachan said. “Everyone is running around and a few of us got a little frazzled. Sam had to pull us back together a little bit. I still think we handled everything well.”

In the Eastern Michigan meet, NIU finished with a total score of 192.075, led by scores of bars and beam from sophomore Megan Melendez, with a 9.750 and 9.825 respectively.

Melendez won the high score of the event on beam, and was awarded her third MAC Specialist of the Week title in the season for her scores.

“Megan is just that consistent kid,” Morreale said. “She goes out every week and gets the job done, and gets it done at a high caliber.”

In the Illinois championship meets, the floor squad was the high point, posting a season best 49.00, which also satisfied a team goal of reaching the 49 point mark on an event. The floor squad was led by Rachan, who posted a career best 9.900.

“It felt amazing, that had been my goal this whole year,” Rachan said. “It’s hard to get that 9.9 because of the judges scores having to be averaged. We’ve been a very strong floor squad all year and we feed off of each other.”

The State of Illinois Championship meet also featured a high caliber of opponent, as Morreale noted that U of I is a top 20 ranked team and UIC is a top 30 ranked team.

“Those teams are as good, if not better than any team we’ll see in the MAC championships,” Morreale said. “Our sport is not head to head, so I tell my kids not to watch them, but it’s a natural tendency. It’s another thing to prepare us going forward.”

While the results are a mixed bag between high individual event performances and total score, what isn’t lost on coach or gymnasts is that the scores are still replacing lower ones early in the season.

This allows NIU to ante up their bid for an NCAA regional berth.

“We wanted to get a higher score, we’ve gotten a 195 before,” Rachan said. “Early in the season we had some 191’s and 192’s. It helps us a little bit by dropping those. We’ve been doing great all year. We’re working really hard, I think we just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”