The clang of metal hitting metal, words like "squat", "crunches" and "leg presses", the grunts and groans as large people lift large weights—all are part of Jim Zielinski's world. Zielinski, Coach "Z" to those who know him, is NIU's strength and conditioning...

NIU sports programs have been trying to become more competitive on the national scene and have gone overseas to bring in the talent that is needed to compete at such a level. The NIU men's tennis program is led by two strong Swedish players and some tennis...

The final chapter in the saga of NIU's mens' gymnastic team was written on Saturday. And the closing line can be summed up in one word: ironic. Genaro Severino, the last Huskie gymnast still competing for NIU in the final year of the program, pulled his...

NIU's Genaro Severino should be feeling enough pressure already without the added burden of becoming part of NIU history. Severino is competing in this weekends' NCAA National Gymnastics Championships, a tough enough task for any freshman. But with the...

At the NCAA Central Regionals this weekend, NIU gymnasts Vicki Thimgan and Martha Unger didn't have two things: a high enough finish to advance to the NCAA Championships, and a lot of luck. Unger, competing in her third Regional competition, had a costly...

Erik Solky, a senior on the vanishing Huskie men's gymnastics team, is a young man with a solid future surrounded by younger men with somewhat shakier prospects. The 1988 NCAA qualifier will graduate in May with a bachelor's degree in sociology, take...

The NIU women's gymnastic team didn't exactly save the best for last this weekend and, as a result, may have hurt its chances for an NCAA Central Regional bid. The Huskies won Friday's three-team State of Illinois Classic, but their team score of 185.2...

Interim gymnastics coach Carlos Silvestre not only has Wednesday's meet against Illinois-Chicago on his mind, but survival as well. Not only does Silvestre, in his third week at the helm, need to worry about the program, but he also has taken the responsibitlity...

If Huskie Athletic Director Gerald O'Dell were a comedian, his sense of timing wouldn't get him a ticket out of First City, let alone a gig at Second City. There are no good times to announce the impending elimination of a sport, but on the scale of better...

NIU men's gymnastics team had what may be its last performance at Chick Evans Field House in its 279.45-270.95 loss to national power Ohio State. Last night's meet would be the last men's meet if the NIU athletic board decides to do away with the men's...

As expected, Huskie Athletic Director Gerald O'Dell recommended to the Athletic Board Wednesday that men's gymnastics be eliminated for lack of support and fiscal responsibility. "Regardless of emotion or sentimentality, we need to deal with the facts,"...

Forty-one percent of the NIU Athletic Department received more than the average annual pay raise. Fifteen people received more than the average 8 percent salary increase. Some increases were as high as 30 and 40 percent. "We had priorities in our salary...