Kent State gymnasts end regular season with a bang

Erica Mucci

The Kent State gymnastics team ended the regular season on a high-note as they surpassed the 196 point mark for the second-straight week.

The Flashes stuck it to the Big Red gymnasts from Cornell University with a score of 196.025-192.425.

The meet marked seniors Rachel Goldenberg, Brianna Skiffington, Erin Rothrock and Jaimee Caldwell’s last performance in front of a M.A.C Center crowd.

Goldenberg’s 9.875 on vault helped the Flashes to start the meet out strong.

The Flashes then followed with a dominant performance on bars, where they took the top six scores in the event. Junior Rachel Guida and Rothrock led the way with matching 9.850 scores. Freshman Lawless put up a season-best 9.775.

The beam once again proved to be the Flashes’ weak spot for the day. However, a career best 9.925 from sophomore standout Marie Case carried the Flashes into the final rotation on an upswing.

With another solid showing in the exercise, it is clear the Flashes have found the consistency coach Brice Biggin has been looking for on the floor. A near perfect 9.950 score from Case highlighted the event. One judge was impressed enough to award Case a perfect score for her routine. The score marked Case’s career-best on floor and tired her for fifth in program history.

“It was definitely the best routine I’ve ever done,” Case said to the Kent State Athletic Department. “It was really exciting to actually see one of the judges give me a 10. It was an amazing feeling.”

The explosive 9.950 was the highest score a Flash has posted on the floor exercise since 2004.

Anchor Goldenberg capped the event with a career-best 9.925.

“For them to finish on this type of note, with the two scores we’ve had the last two weeks as well as this week, I think they couldn’t ask for a better finish leading up to what we need to do next week,” Biggin told the Kent State Athletic Department.

The Flashes will travel to Northern Illinois for the 2012 Mid-American Conference Championships Saturday, March 24.