After taking second place out of four teams in the State of Illinois Championships, the NIU gymnastics team performed in the MAC Championships in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. on Saturday.

The Huskies (3-16 overall, 1-5 MAC) lost the meet, coming in seventh place out of seven teams with a score of 191.475.

The score was NIU’s lowest as a team since Feb. 13.

NIU did not win an event, and failed to score above 48 in any of the events. The Huskies’ highest score came on floor exercise, 47.975.

The Huskies had been improving meet by meet, and were expecting good things going into the MAC Championships.

However, head coach Mark Sontag did not see what he expected to see from his team.

“We did not do what we wanted to do today,” Sontag said. “We had been progressing very well the last couple of weeks but today did not show that. We had too many uncharacteristic misses and we were inconsistent. Today was just not our day.”

Senior Holly Reichard gave the top performance for the Huskies. Reichard scored a 9.800 in the balance beam event.

Reichard, who was NIU’s only all-around competitor, scored a 38.200, good for 11th out of 12 competitors.

Other top performances for the Huskies include freshman Sara Hernandez, with a career and team-high 9.700 on vault, tying her for 19th in the event.

“I’m very proud of this team,” Sontag said. “The girls worked hard all year long and made a lot of progress. They almost increased their score total by 10 and that is something they should be proud of. This was a hard way for us to go out, but it will make us stronger and ready for next year.”

Although the Huskies’ season is over, they are still waiting to see if any of the gymnasts are selected to go to the NCAA Regional competition on April 2.