Gymnastics has MAC’s best score in win over Bowling Green

The Gymnastic team meets in the center of the mat before the Floor Routines started at the Beauty and the Beast match on February 10, 2019.

Kent State’s gymnastics posted the highest score by a Mid-American Conference team this season and won over Bowling Green Sunday 195.800-194.075.

In their first MAC win, the Flashes set season highs in all events: 48.975 on bars, 48.800 on vault, 49.050 on floor exercise and 48.975 on beam.  

“I’m very pleased with how the girls performed today,” coach Brice Biggin. “I don’t think they’ve performed much better. They were very confident and wanted to go out there and be aggressive. Good things are happening.”

On the vault, sophomore Abby Fletcher tied for first with a career-high 9.850.

“We were working a lot on little things in practice, and especially on vault because it’s an important event,” Fletcher said. “ We had to work on our landing a lot.”

Fletcher tied a season-high 9.875 on the floor exercise and finished third. The team recorded a season-high 49.050 on floor. Junior Sarah McCarty tied a career-high of 9.825 and finished fourth.

“After the last meet, I was shaky on vault,” McCarty said. “I had a great warm up today, and I think that helped a lot with my confidence. Going from vault to floor felt really good because I had a great event on floor. It was the ending of a great day.”   

On beam, freshman Cami Klein won with a career-high of 9.850; fellow freshman Samantha Henry finished second with a career-high 9.825.  

“We did well in each event, and we ended really well on beam,”McCarty said. “It was a great day. ”  

Senior Dara Williams and freshman Madison Trott recorded a career high 9.850 and tied for individual bars title. Junior Jade Brown tied a career-high 9.800 to finish fourth place.

“It’s difficult being away from home because they’re not used to the equipment, and the setting is different,” Biggin said. “I thought that they handled that very well, and they competed well as a team. They helped each other out, they cheered each other on, and they made things easy for each other.

“Some of the things that we work on as a team is chemistry because you can’t be successful just as individuals. They have to work with each other. We got to be happy for them and push them. That’s how we become a better team.” 

The team will host North Carolina and George Washington at 1 p.m. Sunday  in the M.A.C. Center.

Sara Al Harthi is a sports reporter. Contact her at [email protected].