Gymnastics win Sunday tri-meet to complete weekend sweep

Freshman Madison Iannuzzo serves the audience with a beam performance on Feb. 24, 2019.   

Sara Al Harthi

The Kent State gymnastics team finished off a weekend sweep Sunday with wins over George Washington and North Carolina State.

The Flashes’ score of 195.725 was their second highest this season. North Carolina State finished second at 195.400 while George Washington scored 195.350.  

“We look at home meets as being extremely important,” coach Brice Biggin said. “You have to compete well away from home too, but when you’re at home it’s like a different level where you don’t like other people coming in and winning on your home field.”

The Flashes scored a season-high 49.175 on beam. Senior Kennedy Plude and Sarah Lippowitsch tied for first with scores of 9.850 while sophomore Abby Fletcher and freshmen Cami Klein and Riley Danielson tied for third.

“My strongest event is definitely beam,” Plude said. “I enjoy all of the events. They each have their ups and downs to them, but I definitely enjoy beam. I think it’s a lot of fun to compete.”

Senior Dara Williams recorded a career-high to tie for first place on vault with a 9.900.

Fletcher scored a 9.875 on the floor exercise and got her second event title of the season. Senior Sarah McCarty tied for second with a 9.850.

“Floor is definitely my favorite,” Fletcher said. “(It’s) the best. It’s so much fun to interact with the crowd and dance.”

On bars, junior Gabby Williams finished in a three-way tie for second with Dara Williams, Jade Brown and freshman Madison Trott with a score of 9.800. The score was a career-high for Gabby Williams.

“It becomes a team effort when you do well like this,” Biggin said. “It’s really not one or two individuals. It really takes an entire team to do that. I think for us to score like this, we have to depend on them all doing their job.”

On Friday, the Flashes grabbed a first-place finish at the George Washington Quad with an all-around score of 195.550.

“What we did this week is great,” Biggin said. “But it’s not going to help us in the following week if we think that we’ve already made it. We need to keep being hungry.”

On Tuesday, Trott was named the MAC Specialist of the Week for her performance last week. Trott earned a career-high on bars with a 9.850 as well as a career-high on floor with a score of 9.825.

“I’m very pleased because she’s worked extremely hard since coming in,” Biggin said of Trott. “She’s not acting like a freshman but like upperclassmen. And for her to be able to come in and do that, I’m really thrilled for her.”

Kent State will host Western Michigan at 7 p.m. on Friday for the annual Pink Meet in the M.A.C. Center.

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