Anthony Maestranzi and Todd Peterson have a chance to break the NIU record for games played in a career.

The seniors have yet to miss a game in four years and have played in 112 consecutive games. If both play the rest of the games this season and the first round of the MAC tournament, they will break T.J. Lux’s record, set in 2000, of 116 games.

With 18 more points, Peterson will add another honor in his final season. The senior will be the 25th NIU player to reach 1,000 points in his career.

Cracking the starting lineup

After being redshirted for two years with assorted injuries, junior Bryson McKenzie made his first career start Saturday against Winthrop.

In 14 minutes of action, the fifth-year player tallied eight points, six rebounds and one assist in the Huskies’ 98-97 loss.

Running away with it

The NIU women’s track and field team finished first in the 15-team Chicagoland Indoor Championships held Feb. 17 at Lewis University.

The Huskies blew away the competition with a score of 154 while second place Saint Joseph’s only scored an 82.66. NIU set two school records and won seven total events.

The 4-by-200 relay team broke a 24-year-old team record with a time of 1:44. Three of the four team members — Lorene Skipper, Ajahnae Hinley and Alexis Johnson — also individually won the 800 meter run and 400 meter and 55-meter dashes, respectively.

Senior Chanel Brown also broke her own team-record triple jump with a leap of 37 feet and 5.25 inches.

NIU finished its victory by sweeping the top three spots in the shot put, with juniors Margaret Gorski and Ashley Morrow and senior Lindsay Chamberlain leading the way.

Rocky start

Youth was not served Sunday as NIU men’s tennis dropped a 6-1 decision to Drake in Rockford. The Huskie (2-4) roster of three sophomores and four freshmen couldn’t keep up with the Bulldogs (7-1).

Drake swept the doubles matches and took five of the six singles matches as well.

The Huskies’ lone winner was freshman David Katz with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory at No. 4 singles. Sophomore Alex Friesen was the only other Huskie to take his match into the third set at No. 2 singles.

“David had a good win primarily because he maintained his focus and composure,” NIU coach Pontus Hiort said. “We never got in rhythm and didn’t make use of our strengths. I’m not taking anything away from Drake, I just believe we didn’t play up to our ability and gave away too many games.”

Round 2

The NIU women’s tennis team also fell victim to Drake Saturday with an identical 6-1 loss in Rockford.

The Huskies (1-5) started strong by taking all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead. But Drake (2-4) struck back in singles by winning all six matches. The closest matches were at No. 1 and No. 3 singles, where freshmen Jenny Edner and Lillian Asuaje took their opponents to three sets.

“We played very well in doubles, certainly our best effort thus far,” NIU coach Pontus Hiort said. “The bottom line is that Drake got the bigger points when a game or set was on the line.”

New look, same site

NIU athletics and CSTV Online officially redesigned www.niuhuskies.com Wednesday as part of a five-year contract. The Web site, which is run by the NIU Sports Information office, features information and statistics on all 17 NIU sports and is the seventh site in the MAC to partner with CSTV.

CSTV hosts 250 collegiate Web sites and more than 50 percent of NCAA Division I-A colleges.