Kent State’s gymnastics team hit its highest team score of the year Sunday, but lost to Central Michigan, 195.175-194.925.

The Flashes’ previous high had been 194.450 against George Washington and West Virginia on Jan. 27.

The meet was part of the Beauty and the Beast event with the wrestling team at the M.A.C. Center.

“You’re never happy about losing, but I thought we did a lot of good things,” coach Brice Biggin said. “We had a lot of girls step up and really do some nice routines. I thought overall the team looked much better today, but it is frustrating losing. The thing that we have to learn, especially being a young team, is we have to learn how to win the tight meets.”

Sophomore Abby Fletcher won the floor with a season-best 9.875, two-tenth of a point above her previous high and tied for first in the vault at 9.800.

Senior Dara Williams also was part of a four-way tie for first in the vault and tied for first on the bars with a 9.825.

Kent State’s 48.575 on the vault and 49.000 on the floor exercise were its highest of the season in those events.

Junior Sarah McCarty finished third on the floor exercise with a score of 9.825. Senior Kennedy Plude placed third on the beam at 9.800

“We got to keep working on getting cleaner in every routine we do, but we’re going to stick with everything we did last week in practice because for the most part it worked,” Biggin said. “The team grew a lot this week. The week before was a little embarrassing.”

Team captain Sarah Lippowitsch said the meet was “a whole 360” better than the previous week.

“We came out and we were confident,” she said. “We’re just going to continue to do our good routines and make every little thing count.” 

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