In his second season as NIU gymnastics coach, Mark Sontag was excited about the idea of hosting the MAC championship in DeKalb.

But that year, 2001, the MAC opted to rearrange the MAC championship hosting schedule, forcing Sontag to wait.

Four years later, Sontag’s wait is over.

Tonight’s conference championship at the Convocation Center will be the first of its kind in DeKalb since 1998, and the first MAC championship hosted in DeKalb since men’s tennis in 2003.

“There’s an intensity to a meet like this and a focus all the teams bring to the floor,” said Sontag in between practice sessions at the Convocation Center Thursday. “It’s down to the wire – they’ve been training for this since August.”

Since the team had just three meets at the Convo this season, Sontag compared the setting of the meet, which begins at 6:05 p.m., to any road event.

“We don’t train here, so when we come in, it’s just like going to an away competition,” said Sontag, whose team usually practices at Huskie Stadium.

What will be an advantage, Sontag said, is the benefits of staying at home: no seven-hour bus rides or unfamiliar settings.

“That definitely plays a part,” agreed senior Kristina Campos. “Traveling takes a lot out of you.”

Sontag hopes the slight advantage of familiarity combined with opponents’ travel-weariness will push the odds in NIU’s favor.

“Any one of these teams can be awesome on any given day,” he said. “Anyone could walk away with this thing.”

The meet will be Campos’ final with fellow teammates, but perhaps not her last overall. The senior standout hopes to advance to the NCAA regionals for the fourth time on what she called the best team she’d seen at NIU.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Campos said of her first MAC championship in DeKalb, “but a little sad because it’s the last meet for the entire team. I just try not to think about it.”

Campos thinks NIU can place in the top three, but the Huskies will have to battle two-time defending champion Central Michigan, ranked No. 13 in GymInfo rankings, which topped the Huskies 196.725-193.200 in its final meet of the regular season.

Sontag, Campos and the rest of the team will take whatever advantage they can get.

“We’re used to being here and we’re using our own equipment,” junior Ashlee Williams said. “I know we’ll have a lot of fans on our side.”