Senior gymnast Holly Reichard closed out her collegiate career at NIU with her third career appearance at NCAA Regionals at the University of Oklahoma this weekend.

This being Reichard’s third appearance at Regionals, the experience was nothing new to her.

“It didn’t really feel any different going into it,” Reichard said. “It felt the same as the other times I went to Regionals. I guess the only differences were that it was not as stressful and there was less pressure.”

Reichard gave a good performance at Regionals, but it was not good enough for her to go to Nationals. She finished the meet with an all-around score of 38.150.

Reichard’s best event came in the uneven parallel bars event, with a score of 9.775.

She also did well on both vault and floor exercise, scoring 9.700 and 9.625 respectively.

But a miss on the balance beam hurt, as Reichard’s overall total was hurt by a 9.050.

“Holly had her only big miss of the day on balance beam,” said head coach Mark Sontag. “She wobbled on the beam, and then she slipped on one of her round-offs which hurt her score.”

Reichard regrets the miss that she had on balance beam, but she realizes that she can’t change it.

“I would love to be able to go back and fix my mistake,” Reichard said. “But at the end of the day, it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it.”

Despite her miss in that event, Sontag thinks that Reichard performed well in the other events.

“All of the events were really equally executed,” Sontag said. “Her floor competition was really strong as well as bars and vault. She gave good performances in all of the events. It’s just too bad she had that one miss happen on balance beam.”

Sontag was proud of the way that Reichard performed in her final competition, and although she was denied a trip to Nationals, Reichard was proud to end her season where she did.

“It felt good to end my senior season by going to Regionals,” Reichard said. “I had a great career at Northern, and I was happy to end my career on a good note.”