The Anderson Arena crowd came alive on Feb. 23 as they energized the BG gymnastics on senior night.
The team got back to their winning ways this weekend and thrived in all four apparatuses on the way to a 194.825 to 193.075 victory over Northern Illinois.
The Falcons entered the competition on a three meet losing streak, not having won an outright meet since Jan. 31 when they beat Ball State on the road in Muncie, Ind.
They picked up a win, though, as they improve their record to 7-5 (4-1) overall in the conference to keep their Mid-American Conference regular season title hopes alive while grabbing the most wins since the 2002 season.
BG looks to continue this momentum throughout the rest of the season as they started and finished strong in their meet against the Huskies, which is something that they have recently been struggling with.
“Our bars were better this week; we are getting there. Beam was really solid and then floor they just really brought it home,” head coach Kerrie Turner said. “I think the energy of that home crowd made such a difference … very exciting.”
The entire meet was neck and neck as the Falcons and the Huskies battled back and forth, exchanging leads.
But the Falcons pulled away during the second half of the meet as they dominated both the balance beam and floor exercises with every gymnast posting a 9.600 or better on the two events.
On beam, Alyssa Nocella led the way with a 9.800 along with four other Falcons who posted a 9.700 or better on the event. In addition to the floor exercise where Harrington got a meet best 9.875, every other Falcon posted a 9.650 or higher on the apparatus. Gina Locigno also won the all-around competition back-to-back meets.
“Gina has been looking good in practice,” said Turner. “I am a big believer that if you practice well you will be more confident at your competitions and she has really worked hard this week to make sure all those little details are there.”
BG will now turn to next week as they start a three-meet road trip to end the regular season, starting off with Texas Women’s Pioneers and then the meet the following weekend against Kent State to help determine the regular season MAC title.
“We have got a meet outside the MAC at Texas Women’s and that will really be a good opportunity to really build on scores,” Turner said. “It is very hard to win at Kent, they are a great program … but there is no doubt we have the team to do it. We just got to put it all together that night and not make any mistakes,” said Turner.
The Falcons will have over a week to prepare for the Pioneers and look to get another win under their belt.