Gymnastics stumbles out of gate in conference

By Andrew Hansen

DeKALB | The NIU gymnastics team got off on the wrong foot of the MAC Sunday as the Huskies lost to Bowling Green 190.200 – 188.225 in their MAC season opener in DeKalb.

Jennifer Naughton posted the highest score of the meet for NIU, winning the floor exercise with a 9.750. The sophomore also placed in the vault with a 9.725.

Also placing for NIU (2-1, 0-1) was Allison Holysz, who placed second on the uneven parallel bars, Jody Yednock finishing third on the bars and tied for third on the vault with Leah Johnson and Meghan Cronin.

Bowling Green was lead by Jholeen Ponce, who won both the vault and beam events with scores of 9.825 and 9.675. Sakura Tomita won the bars with a score of 9.700.

The Eagles outscored NIU in three of four events to get the win.

“We anticipated having a much stronger meet this week and from the training, we should have,” head coach Mark Sontag said.

Women’s soccer catches a Codd

The NIU women’s soccer team went fishing for an assistant head coach and caught itself a Codd – Chuck Codd.

Codd’s role is volunteer assistant coach and he has experience playing professional soccer and as an assistant coach at the Division I level.

Codd won three national championships with the Chicago Stingers/Sockers.

Codd was also an assistant coach at Northwestern for years – one with the men’s team, three with the women’s.

“Not only does he know the talent in the Chicago area very well, but he is also great at developing the talent he already is working with,” head coach Marci Miller said.

Records are meant to be broken

Two school records were broken by the NIU women’s track team Sunday at the Wisconsin Elite Invitational.

Senior sprinter Coretta Evans broke the school record for the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.72, which was good enough for a second-place finish. Evans also placed third in the 400-meter dash.

Senior thrower Ashley Morrow also set a school record in the shot put with a distance of 47’10”, good enough for a first place finish. Morrow also placed second in the weight throw.

Other Huskies placing at the meet were Carolyn Vasquez, who won the 600-meter run with a personal best time of 1:37.18, and Lorene Skipper, who placed third in the 800-meter run.

Freshman Jessica Statler finished third in the high jump and junior Margaret Gorski finished third in the shot put.