April 2, 2007

DeKALB, Ill. - Northern Illinois sophomore Leah Johnson (Glenview, Ill.) and freshman Natalie Blum (Homer Glen, Ill.) will represent the Huskies at the 2007 National Collegiate Women's Gymnastics South Central Regional in Tucson, Ariz., the NCAA announced Monday. Johnson was the No. 2 qualifier in the all-around for the South Central Region, while Blum earned the lone individual event spot in the floor exercise in NIU's region.

In addition to Johnson and Blum, NIU senior Jody Yednock (West Chicago, Ill.) and sophomore Jennifer Naughton (Smithville, Mo.) will travel to Tucson as alternates on the uneven parallel bars and balance beam, respectively. Only one alternate is selected for each event.

Johnson, who won the state all-around title March 25 with a season and career best score of 39.075, finished fifth in the all-around at the Mid-American Conference Championships this past weekend and was third on the vault. She earned second team All-MAC honors for her efforts this season and was ranked second among the five all-arounders (from non-competing teams) chosen for the regional.

Blum was Northern Illinois' most consistent performer on the floor exercise throughout the 2007 season and averaged a 9.730 on the event this year. She did not score below 9.6 on floor in 10 outings this year.

"It's always a positive to have individuals selected to the NCAA Regionals because one of our goals is to compete in the postseason," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "Leah has been dominant all year and to go in ranked second as an all-arounder in the regional really is icing on the cake for her. She won the state title [two weeks ago] and moving on to regionals is great for her, great for the program and great for NIU athletics.

"Natalie has been consistent on floor all year long and for her to qualify first on the floor in the region is just outstanding. She did what she needed to do from day one as far as consistency. To go to regionals as a freshman really bodes well for the future."

None of the four Huskie gymnasts who will travel to Tucson has ever competed in the NCAA Regionals before. Northern Illinois was not represented at the 2006 regionals after sending Kristina Campos and Ashlee Williams to the 2005 South Central meet.

Yednock and Naughton were NIU's top performers on the bars and beam, respectively, throughout the 2007 season and were likely just tenths away from earning the first spot and guaranteeing competition at the meet, Sontag said. As it is, they will travel to Tucson and be available to compete if the top competitor on their event cannot.

"Jody is one of the best at bars in the nation," Sontag said. "We have an incredibly strong region for that event for her to be an alternate. I really believe she'd be first in any other region. Jennifer is a natural on the beam - that is her highlight event. She's right there - we're talking about a 100th or 10th of point between her and the next step up."

Regional competitions will be held at six sites across the country on Saturday, April 14 at 6 p.m. Six teams, five all-around competitors (who are not on a qualifying team) and one individual event specialist per event [who has a minimum Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) of 9.4] were named to each of the six regions. For the South Central Regional, Stanford, Oregon State, Arizona, Illinois, Arizona State and Illinois-Chicago were chosen for the team competition.

The top two teams and the top two all-around competitors (who are not on an advancing team) from each regional will receive an automatic berth to the national championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 26-28. In addition, the event winners at the regional championships will advance to the national championships (in that event only) if they are not part of a qualifying team or the all-around qualifiers.

-- NIU --