Knowing exactly what to expect, NIU gymnasts Holly Reichard and Jennifer Naughton jumped into NCAA Regionals with their fear far behind them.

Both the sophomore and senior made the trip to regionals last year, and a year’s experience proved to be all they needed to score high in Fayettesville, Ark.

Reichard finished the weekend landing the eighth spot in the all around competition, while Naughton earned an 11th place finish with her balance beam routine. Reichard’s eighth place finish is the highest for a Huskie gymnast since 1998 when Sandy Menard advanced to the NCAA Championships.

“It was a very good night for Holly and Jen,” said NIU head coach Mark Sontag. “They certainly acquitted themselves well, wore the Huskie colors with pride down here and put on some great performances; I’m really proud of them. It was a good ending to the season. I’m happy to see them close it out like this.”

MAC Gymnast of the Year and sophomore Reichard proved her title, scoring a total mark of 39.075 at the regional competition. The tally is a big improvement from last year, when she grabbed a 37.500 as a true freshman.

“Holly went up and didn’t miss a beat [from the regular season],” Sontag said. “She competed very, very well. She was darn close to moving on to the next level and the really good news is, she’s only a sophomore, we’ve got two more years of doing this.”

The sophomore rotated with regional favorite Standford, and scored her highest mark on her beam routine. Her 9.825 was enough to give her a fifth place tie in the event. Reichard also notched a 9.775 on both the floor exercise and vault, putting her in the top 25 in both events.

MAC Senior of the Year Naughton rallied from two years of experience as the alternate for the balance beam competition to score a 9.775 on her routine. Prior to this year’s performance, Naughton was tabbed as the alternate two years running and never got the chance to perform at the regional level. This year, however, Naughton was chosen as the beam specialist, beating out all other individual competitors.

“What a great way for Jen to finish her career,” Sontag said. “To make it to NCAAs and then go up and hit your routine, what an experience for her. It’s a nice punctuation mark on a great career. She’s been a great Huskie.”

In the last 10 years, NIU has sent 16 Huskies to the NCAA Regional competition, with the appearances by Reichard and Naughton making it the fifth time in six seasons that the school has sent multiple gymnasts in the same season. Sontag said sending gymnasts to regionals has a good impact on recruiting top quality performers to NIU.

“Regionals, going onto the NCAA’s with a national audience, it’s the cream rising to the top,” Sontag said. “It’s a separator for everything else that’s out there. People look at that for recruiting very closely, so it serves [NIU] well.”