Women's Gymnastics | March 18

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Junior Ashley Potts (Oakwood Hills, Ill./Prairie Ridge) returns from the Mid-American Conference Championships to Northern Illinois University a Champion and a part of the All-Tournament team for her performance on uneven parallel bars as a part of the record-breaking Huskies' gymnastics team that set the NIU team floor score, Saturday.
 
The success did not end there for NIU, as the MAC announced senior Jamyra Carter (Ypsilanti, Mich./Huron) and head coach Sam Morreale as Specialist of the Year and NIU gymnastics' first ever MAC Coach of the Year after their historical season.
 
"I was pretty sure she would win based on her consistency," said Morreale of Carter's award. "She's basically a 9.900 average on bars, and it's pretty darn impressive. It's a great award for her to earn her senior year. She deserves it, but she's not done. I think she can do well at regionals, and getting there last year is only going to fuel the fire where she's just going to be comfortable."
 
The team beamed with happiness as the MAC announced Morreale's achievement, agreeing that the award was not only an accomplishment for himself, but an accomplishment of the coaching staff and the progress the team made this season.
 
"I'm really proud of him getting Coach of the Year," said Carter after coach Morreale's award was announced. "Before the meet, I was predicting and hoping that he would get it because of how much the team improved and how great of a coach he's been all four of my years. I'm just really excited for him."
 
Though the Huskies' didn't finish where they had hoped, the final team score is not something to overlook as the 195.725 is now the third highest score in school history, the highest the team has scored at the MAC Championships and the second highest score of the season.
 
"It just shows the potential of this team, and it was nice to see them step up," said Morreale. "We fell a little short today, but the improvements are what's important to us. That's what they are trying to do, and I felt good about it."
 
The Huskies' 49.350 floor score was accomplished with a 9.900 career high tie from senior Courtney Dowdell (Lynwood, Ill./Thornton Fractional South), two 9.875 scores from junior Katherine Prentice (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) to tie her career high for the fourth time and sophomore Anna Martucci (Clarkston, Mich./Our Lady of the Lakes), as well as two 9.850 scores from senior Brittany Wenzel (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) and freshman Amanda Bartemio (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata).
 
"We've been chasing the floor record all year," said Morreale. "It was really fun to reach that, especially in a meet like the championship where it's a little higher pressure. They did about as well as they could on floor, so it was exciting to see. With Courtney going 9.900 and her routine not place shows how good the competition was."
 
NIU showed up competing to win, and it was evident from the scores on vault and bars. The team's 48.900 vault score ranks third, while the 49.025 bars score tallied their fifth score at 49.000 or higher for the season.
 
All-around competitors Prentice and Potts put together their best finishes of the season. Prentice set her career high at 39.250 as she tied her vault (9.825), beam (9.850) and floor (9.875) personal bests. Potts's 39.200 was achieved with a first-place finish on bars to set her career high at 9.900. She rounded off her score with a 9.800 on vault and two 9.750 scores on beam and floor.
 
"She was fun to watch," said coach Morreale of Potts. "She's been toying with that all year and scoring high. Like Jamyra, she's consistent every day in practice, and to see her stick and her enjoyment, it fuels our fire and helps us to move forward."
 
The Huskies ended up taking fifth place against Eastern Michigan with a 196.500, Bowling Green State with a 196.150, Central Michigan with a 196.100 and Western Michigan with a 196.075. The Huskies outscored Kent State who tallied 194.850 and Ball State who finished with 194.750.
 
After the accomplishments at MAC Championships, NIU tallied three school records as a team. The school records set were on vault with a 49.100 at Kentucky (Feb. 24), the team all-around score of 196.100 at CMU (March 11) and floor with the most recent score.
 
Carter recorded an individual school record at CMU on the uneven parallel bars tying the 9.950 score that hadn't been met in 20 seasons. Throughout this season, she tallied two Specialist of the Week awards and was selected for the second consecutive year to the All-MAC Second Team.
 
Carter will continue her season in two weeks at the NCAA Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Saturday, April 1. Three Huskies will join her including Dowdell, Potts and Prentice with a possible fourth in senior Andie Van Voorhis (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard).
 
-NIU-