If a team doesn't have a strong bond, individuals will fail. That is the advice NIU gymnast Leah Johnson tries to live by. Johnson said she would not have had the individual success she saw over the 2008 season without her team. "We had such a great bond...

Leah Johnson is not your typical gymnast. The junior may be an average college student, with a love for shoe shopping, dancing and hanging out with friends. However, when it comes to comfort food, Johnson knows how to push her coach's buttons. One of...

Pride. That's what two Huskie gymnasts and their coach felt after the NCAA Regionals. Junior Leah Johnson and freshman Holly Reichard closed out their seasons with a trip to Norman, Okla., to compete in the event this past weekend. Neither gymnast earned...

"What does it take to be number one? Because two is not a winner and three nobody remembers." As rap star Nelly's lyrics filled the gym, junior Leah Johnson and freshman Holly Reichard were hard at work. Concentration and determination showed on their...

Huskie football fans will have a final chance to say "thank you" and "goodbye" to former NIU head coach Joe Novak. On April 25, NIU will host an open house at the Yordon Center for Novak and his wife, Carole. The open house will be from 4 to 6 p.m. The...

A fall in gymnastics is a high-priced mistake - costing exactly five-tenths of a point. And for the NIU gymnastics team, one fall was the difference, as the Huskies fell short at the MAC Championships on March 29. "Basically, we were one fall out of second...

Practice makes perfect, and perfect brings wins. That's the motto the NIU women's gymnastics team has lived by this season. Huskies head coach Mark Sontag said his team has worked hard since its first August practice with one goal in mind: a MAC Championship....

This week has been good for two NIU athletes. Gymnast Leah Johnson was named MAC Co-Gymnast of the Week and pitcher Adam Holdenrid was named MAC West Pitcher of the Week. Johnson won the award for the third time this season by posting an all-around score...

Perfection always comes at a price. The price the NIU gymnastics team faced this weekend was the realization it can't always be perfect. The Huskies (193.725) fell to the University of Illinois (194.825) and University of Illinois at Chicago (194.550)...

Keeping the momentum is key for the NIU gymnastics team as it heads into the Illinois State Championships on Saturday. The Huskies will compete against the University of Illinois, Illinois State and the University of Illinois-Chicago in a quadrangular...

There was no break for NIU gymnastics as it sprung into two meets over the past week. The team started by heading to Eastern Michigan for a quadrangular meet at the Eagle Invitational. The Huskies saw their five-match win streak end, but were able to...

Raising the bar is what NIU gymnastics is all about. The team has not lost a meet since Jan. 20, and is sitting on a five-meet win streak going into Eastern Michigan this Sunday. EMU is hosting NIU, along with the Air Force and Illinois State, in the...