The Kent State gymnastics team scored a season high 196.025, finishing third place at the Ohio State Tri-Meet against No. 16 Ohio State and No. 24 Illinois.

The Buckeyes placed first in the meet with a score of 197.600, followed by the Fighting Illini who placed second in the meet with a score of 196.875.

The meet was originally scheduled to be Kent State against Ohio State, but Illinois was added mid-week to make it a tri-meet.

“We’re still leaving a lot of tents out on the plate that we need to still clean up,” coach Brice Biggin said. “But we’re getting closer and I think the girls had a lot of energy today.”

The Flashes move to 6-8 overall for the season.

“Obviously you don’t want to finish in third,” Biggin said. “But the two teams that were ahead of us are both really, really solid teams that we have a great deal of respect for.”

Sophomore Alyssa Guns set a new season high on the floor with a score of 9.950, as the team scored 49.250 in the event.

“We were telling ourselves that it wasn’t a MAC meet so all that mattered was that we went out and had fun,” Guns said. “There was really not much pressure. We just kind of wanted to go out and score big and prove to the BIG 10 that we could throw out big scores too.”

Kent State scored a season high 49.175 on the vault. Senior Rachel DeCavitch and junior Kyndall Gilbert each scored a team-high 9.850 for the event.

The Flashes improved from last meet’s performance on the bars, scoring 49.000. Other notable performances from the event for Kent State came from DeCavitch and junior Sarah Haxton who each led the team with a score of 9.825.

KSU’s lowest scoring event was on the beam, with a score of 48.600. Leading the team for the event was DeCavitch with a score of 9.850.

DeCavitch was the only Kent State gymnast to compete all-around, accumulating a total score of 39.250.

“We put together all four events at the same time,” Biggin said. “We’re going to be a dangerous team at the end of the year.”

Kent State will play its final game of the regular season Sunday at home against Central Michigan as part of their senior day.

“I just got done talking to the team a little bit ago and said ‘this is such an important meeting for us,'” Biggin said. “We need to send the seniors out on the right note. It’s been a really, really good senior class. They’ve done a lot for this program.”

Kent State is scheduled to compete against the Chippewas at 1 p.m Sunday in the M.A.C. Center.

Michael Neenan is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].