Northern Illinois University gymnasts Natalie Hamp and Tara Kofmehl are headed West as the Huskie duo will compete as individuals in the Seattle Regional on Thursday, March 31.
Both Hamp and Kofmehl will be making their second NCAA Regional appearance as they competed in the Salt Lake City Regional a year ago. While Hamp qualified as an individual event athlete on uneven parallel bars for the second straight year, Kofmehl was selected on floor exercise in 2022 after competing as an all-arounder a year ago.
"It's exciting for Natalie and Tara to be going to regionals again," said NIU head coach Sam Morreale, who has had 23 regional qualifiers during his 11 seasons as head coach with at least one in each of the past eight NCAA Regional meets. "For both of them, it's always better to go back the second time. Tara is going as a floor specialist this year rather than an all-arounder, but floor is her forte. While they both did really well [at regionals] last year, it was still the first time. This year they're going knowing they belong and determined to make it through to nationals."
Hamp scored a 9.900 on floor exercise at the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional last year to tie for fourth at the Regional, while Kofmehl scored a 9.875 on floor exercise and her 39.175 on all-around was good for seventh place. Only the top event specialist from both sessions who is not on an advancing team goes on to the national meet.
The two were NIU's most highly rated gymnasts throughout the 2022 season on their respective events, and in fact, earned first team All Mid-American Conference recognition as they owned the highest National Qualifying Scores (NQS) in the MAC on bars (Hamp) and floor (Kofmehl).
They followed up their first team All-MAC selections by winning MAC titles on bars and floor exercise, respectively, at last week's league championship meet in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Hamp scored a 9.900 to tie for first place on bars for the second straight year, becoming the first Huskie gymnast to repeat as a MAC Champion on the same event. One year after winning the MAC individual event title on vault, Kofmehl tied for first on floor exercise with a career high 9.950 to become just the third NIU gymnast to win MAC titles on two different events in different years. Kofmehl's 9.950 score on floor tied as the third-highest all-time at NIU.
A junior from Ionia, Michigan, Hamp has scored 9.800 or higher in 10 of 11 meets this season and tied her career high with a 9.925 in NIU's Tri-Meet on February 4, while Kofmehl has not scored below 9.850 on floor exercise in 12 meets in 2022 and ranks fourth in the region and tied for 30th in the country. The Mesa, Arizona product has won or tied for first on floor eight times, including at the Illinois Quad Meet, and was fourth behind three Gator gymnasts at the season-opening quad meet at Florida.
The Huskies will be part of the bars and floor rotation with the team from Oregon State University in the second of two sessions at American Airlines Arena on March 31. The second session begins at 9 p.m. (CDT) and will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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