They’ve had a couple of days to think it over.

What should have been … wasn’t.

What was … shouldn’t have been.

NIU gymnastics is now officially underway. With this past weekend’s disappointing last place finish at the Ball State Pentangular now behind the ladies, the road to improve for this coming weekend’s home triangular is being paved.

But not without a little retrospect.

“We should have won the meet,” admitted NIU gymnastics coach Bobbie Cesarek. “We should have won the meet by a long shot. We are known as a floor (exercise) team or have been in the past and our floors were the worst they’ve looked in a long time.”

Five of the Huskies scored lower than 9.00 on the floor. The lone bright spot came from meet leader/Huskie sophomore Goha Mroz at 9.40.

“Again, I knew we weren’t going to be ready for it,” Cesarek reiterated, “but I really didn’t expect as many falls as I saw.”

Not only on floor but the frightening occurrence on the vault which disabled junior Sandy Escobar from further competition.

“She has the most colorful ankle you will ever see,” described Cesarek. “It is bright purple half way up her calf. There are no broken (bones), thankfully. It is just a severe sprain. Doctor says a month, she thinks less, depends on how hard she works on rehab(ilitation). And we talked to the training staff, they’re going to get her in twice a day (for treatment), and if she does what she’s supposed to do, she could be back soon.”

Though the floor exercise stunted any sudden move into the lead at the time, ending the competition on the uneven parallel bars didn’t help the cause either.

“There’s no break in there …” Cesarek acknowledged. “You’re swinging and you’re moving all the time and it’s such a timing event that if you get off on a simple thing, it’s ‘bye-bye.’ To have it the very first meet of the year, the very last event at a night meet, at ten o’clock swinging bars, the kids were pooped. There’s no doubt about it; they were tired. But it still shouldn’t have been as bad as it was.”

How bad was it?

Well, five of the six Huskies displayed scores of 8.40 or lower. Sophomore Tiffany Bollinger saved NIU from total embarrassment with her 9.25, good for a fifth place tie overall.

“I think that we did well going into beam (four Huskies with 9.25 or better),” added Cesarek. “I think that when we got to floor it was almost like the mistakes that we made sort of shocked the team, the veterans, because we’ve not done badly since the freshmen arrived, who are now juniors and seniors. Therefore, it was like, ‘wow.'”

The ladies will now get a couple of days to think it over before the home opener on Saturday at 1 p.m. The triangular invites Winona State University and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh into the Chick Evans Field House.