The Northern Illinois University gymnastics team will host its annual Beauty and the Beast meet on Friday, Feb. 9 in conjunction with NIU Wrestling as both teams will compete at 7 p.m. inside the NIU Convocation Center.
The Huskies will host Western Michigan in Mid-American Conference competition and also welcome Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Whitewater for a quad meet.
“Beauty and the Beast is a great event,” head coach Sam Morreale said. “It’s not just fun for the athletes but also the coaches and definitely for the fans. It’s got the circus atmosphere of something going on at all times. Especially with us having a quad meet and the wrestling meet, there won’t be any breaks in the action.”
NIU (2-5-1, 1-1 MAC) set an all-time team record in the Tennessee Collegiate Classic on Friday, Jan. 19 with a 196.400. In that meet, the Huskies also set a record high vault score with 49.150.
After NIU’s record setting day at the Tennessee Collegiate Classic the Huskies hosted their first home meet on Sunday, Jan. 28. The Huskies struggled on the beam in the meet and fell off pace with CMU and EMU.
“This meet will give us another chance at a conference win,” Morreale said. “Last week’s break came at a really good time. We got two really good weeks of training, and we are really looking forward to Friday night.”
The Huskies have continued to rely on Isabella Sissi, who set a career high with a 9.850 on vault in the Huskies’ last meet. NIU has also relied on 2023 NCAA regional qualifier Alyssa Al-Ashari for consistent scores on balance beam and uneven parallel bars, while three freshmen have also found their place in the Huskies lineup.
Mikayla Brown, Isabella Ross and Dawsyn Sallee have all competed in each of the Huskies’ four meets in 2024. Brown has consistently appeared in bars, beam and floor, while Ross has competed on vault, beam and floor.
Sallee has recorded high scores of 9.850 on vault and 9.925 on floor. Her 9.925 is NIU’s highest score on floor in 2024.
“A lot of the athletes have been getting more comfortable,” Morreale said. “Dawsyn Sallee has been great on vault. Isabella Sissi came back on vault last week. I am also looking forward to Alyssa Al-Ashari on bars and beam and watching her come back with some big scores.”
WMU (7-1, 2-0 MAC) will enter Friday’s meet having won their last three meets. The Broncos scored 195.800 last time out against EMU on 195.800.
Friday’s meet will be the Huskies second of four home meets in 2024. All gymnastics meets are free of charge. Following the meet, NIU gymnasts will sign special edition “Beauty & The Beast” posters. The meet can be seen on Huskies All-Access (subscription).