It’s hard to stop the Kent State gymnastics train now.
On Thursday, the team traveled to Morgantown to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in a head-to-head matchup.
The Flashes were coming off a Tri-Meet event earlier in the month where they beat both teams (Fisk and Wilberforce). The team beat Fisk by 4.700 points and Wilberforce by over 52 points, propelling the team to an early 2-0 season record.
WVU was coming off a loss four days prior to fellow Mid-American Conference competitor Central Michigan, making the team 1-1 before the match.
The Flashes have not beaten the Mountaineers since 2005, and the last eight matchups between the two teams have all gone WVU’s way.
That changed Thursday in a Flashes victory where the team saw three first-place finishes.
Flying the flag
In the first rotation, the bars went to WVU for the most part.
On the podium, a pair of Flashes, juniors Mya Migliore and Heidi Schultz, tied for third place with scores of 9.800. Five other Flashes competed in the event, with scores ranging from 9.775 to 9.075.
KSU was able to get back into it with the second rotation, which was the vault.
Sophomore Nene Alvine took home the top spot with a 9.850 score — her night was not over.
A couple Flashes followed suit not far behind, as junior Charlie Behner and sophomore Gabby Riley both scored 9.675 in the event, putting the two in a tie for second place.
Of the other four KSU participants, no player scored under 9.475.
The floor routine was up next, and Alvine continued to shine on the day. She scored another 9.850 and took home another event victory. Behner received another tied-second place finish (this time with a WVU player), and Riley missed the podium with a 9.750.
To close up the event, the fourth and final rotation was the beam, which was another KSU victory.
This time, the win came from Schultz, who scored a 9.850 in the event. Alvine and senior Alyssa Guns tied for second place, both scoring 9.775. Guns is coming off a MAC Specialist of the Week award and took a podium place in one of the two events she participated in.
With the three first-place finishes out of four events, Kent State was able to take the match against West Virginia 193.775-192.325.
KSU was able to exact revenge, as last season, KSU lost to the Mountaineers by 0.775 points.
Alvine was a star in the meet, as she participated in all four events and placed in three. She finished with two first-place finishes and one second-place finish — her lowest score was 9.075.
She finished as the meet’s top all-around finisher with a combined score of 38.550.
Kent State only had two scores lower than 9.000 and six scores at or above 9.800.
Looking ahead
The team will take more than a week off before going on the road again to take on Eastern Michigan. Since 2010, KSU is 11-6 against the Eagles, and KSU has taken the last four matchups.
On the road however, KSU is 3-5 against EMU since 2010.
Eastern Michigan is a perfect 4-0 this season, with three of the wins coming against MAC foes. EMU is 1-0 in the conference since two of its conference wins came in a four-team meet.
In games that go into the record, EMU has not scored lower than 194.925 this season — KSU has scored 193.775 in all events so far.
Last season, KSU beat Eastern Michigan 197.200-196.450 at home, and in the MAC Championships, Kent State had a better score than EMU, who placed in sixth out of seven teams — KSU finished in third.
The matchup is slated for Jan. 26 at 1 p.m., and KSU is nursing an impressive 3-0 record this season.
With the big win against a Big 12 team already in the books, Kent State is looking forward to almost exclusively MAC competition going forward. Still, KSU has not heard the last of WVU, as the teams will compete in a multi-team event in Columbus later in the season on March 16, the event right before the MAC Championships.
John Hilber is sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].