Kent State gymnastics competed in the Mid-American Conference Championships in Bowling Green, Ohio, at the Stroh Center on Saturday and placed third with a final score of 195.325.
Coach Brice Biggin had positive remarks about the placement of the team and how well his gymnasts performed on Saturday.
“I was very happy with our performance,” Biggin said. “We went in there as a fourth seed after the season and with some of the injuries we have had to deal with this year, and to come out third, which is obviously not where we want to finish, but I thought the team did a really good job.”
The Flashes started the tournament with the uneven bars event with the lowest bars score of the season and the lowest score of the day with a 48.450. Seniors Nastia Rudnitskaya and Charlie Behner tied for 10th place in the event by earning individual scores of 9.750.
“The judging was really tight in the first rotation,” Biggin said. “We made five out of six routines. We stuck four out of six dismounts and yet scored one of our lowest scores of the year.”
Sophomore Sophia Balko landed in seventeenth place with a score of 9.725. Freshman Lana Mast added a score of 9.625 while senior Heidi Schultz contributed a score of 9.600.
“Judges have seven rotations, and it’s really difficult for judges to stay consistent,” Biggin said. “You’ve [judges] got six more rotations to go, and you’re a human being. You’re gonna start out low. You’re not gonna throw your best scores right off the bat.”
Although the uneven bars event was a slow start for KSU, the Flashes slowly but surely started to work their way up to higher scores in the second event, the balance beam.
For the balance beam event, the Flashes posted a score of 48.725. Sophomore Anika Most and junior Nene Alvine scored the team’s best beam scores of 9.775, where they found themselves in 14th place.
Schultz contributed a score of 9.750 and tied for 18th place.
Senior Mya Migilore came in 22nd with a beam score of 9.725. Junior Gabby Riley rounded out the rotation with a 24th-place score of 9.700.
After the second rotation, KSU’s overall score was 97.175. Going into the third rotation, the Flashes performed their floor routines. This rotation went much smoother than the first two, as they completed the event with an overall score of 49.125.
Behner kept consistent with her high-scoring floor routines with a score of 9.900, which tied her in second place behind junior Keira Thornton from Bowling Green University. Schultz’s routine landed her a score of 9.875, where she found herself tied in fourth place with four other gymnasts.
“Charlie has had that impact on the team the entire year,” Biggin said. “You always want your really consistently good kids to have a great last meet, and she has just been such a great leader on the team this year.”
Senior Emma Masse received a score of 9.850, tying for ninth place. Bingman contributed a 9.775 in 26th place, and Rudnitskaya earned a score of 9.725.
Going into the fourth and final rotation, the vault event, KSU had an overall score of 146.300. Behner once again executed an outstanding performance; she earned a score of 9.850, which tied her for first place. She shared this placement with five other gymnasts who competed.
Bingman also contributed a solid score for the team with a score of 9.825, where she landed in seventh place. Balko and sophomore Allie Call tied for 12th place with scores of 9.800. Freshman Taylor Archambeau added a score of 9.750.
“Sophia Balko as a lead-off has done an amazing job the last couple weeks of really starting the team off,” Biggin said. “When you have that leadoff kid who goes out there and can go 9.750-9.800, all of a sudden it tends to elevate the rest of those kids [in the lineup].”
Three gymnasts from KSU will go on to compete in the NCAA Regionals, Behner, Bingman and Schultz; however, this marks the end of the 2025-2026 season for the rest of the team.
“We saw growth in this team,” Biggin said. “I think, you know, every week in about the last five or six weeks, yeah, we’d have a little thing here and there. With some of the injuries we had, we knew that we were going to have to replace some early solid routines, and it put a lot of pressure on some of the young girls and some of the girls who didn’t compete much last year, and I think they did really an amazing job throughout the year.”
Felicity Scott is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].