Shawntelle Thompson performs on the balance beam while her teammates cheer. The gymnastics team heads to Northern Illinois Sunday.

Credit: Andrew popik

The Flashes disappearing from the rankings doesn’t mean they are disappearing from the mats.

Kent State went missing from the GymInfo/Troester.com rankings this week because more than half of the team’s meets have been at home, and the Flashes (6-2, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) haven’t had enough away meets yet to be included in the rankings. After Sunday’s meet at Northern Illinois, the Flashes will fulfill the requirement for road meets and be back into the rankings.

The Flashes face Northern Illinois (4-5, 1-1 MAC) 7 p.m. Sunday.

“These meets are like practice meets right now,” senior Erika Linnersten said. “We’re building up our confidence and building up our team skills for the MAC championships and for regionals.”

Although the Flashes were not ranked this week, the team technically remains in the No. 2 spot in the MAC. Kent State coach Brice Biggin said he feels that the Flashes have a bit to improve on through the rest of the regular season.

“If we can put together consistent meets, we’ll give ourselves a shot to be very competitive in all of those meets,” Biggin said. “It starts in Northern Illinois. We need to go out there and beat them and have a good team score, just to build confidence away from home. Confidence at home and confidence away from home are two totally different things.”

Contact gymnastics reporter Kali Price at [email protected].