April 13, 2007

TUCSON, Ariz. - Northern Illinois sophomore Leah Johnson and freshman Natalie Blum will make their first appearance on a "larger stage" when the two Huskie gymnasts compete in the 2007 NCAA South Central Gymnastics Region at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. Saturday. The meet begins at 6 p.m. (PDT).

Johnson (Glenview, Ill.) will take part in the all-around competition while Blum (Homer Glen, Ill.) qualified as the lone individual in the region on the floor exercise. They are the first NIU gymnasts to qualify for the NCAA Regionals since the 2005 season, when Kristina Campos and Ashlee Williams were the Huskie representatives.

"This is a great thing for us to have two underclassmen going to regionals," said NIU Head Coach Mark Sontag. "It speaks well to our program to be represented at regionals; it's important to recruiting and to the future of our program."

Johnson and Blum were two of NIU's most consistent performers throughout the 2007 season and it is that consistency which earned them regional bids, Sontag said.

"In gymnastics, you have to be good [to qualify for regionals], but you have to be good on a regular basis," he said. "You have to do it day-after-day because it is not just one score that qualifies you, it is the entire season of work."

Johnson, one of five all-around competitors [in addition to those on one of the teams selected] will rotate with the Oregon State team and will follow the traditional gymnastics order of vault, bars, beam and floor. Blum is the only floor exercise specialist and she will compete in the fifth rotation after the Illinois-Chicago team.

Johnson earned second team All-Mid-American Conference honors this year in addition to winning the state all-around title. She placed fifth at the MAC Championships in the all-around and was third on the vault. She has a season and career high score of 39.075. Blum was extremely consistent on floor exercise as a freshman as all 11 of her season marks on that event were between 9.6 and 9.8.

The University of Arizona will host the NCAA South Central Regional and more information is available at www.arizonaathletics.com. 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 on April 26-29, hosted by the University of Utah. 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 --