The Kent State gymnastics team enters the NCAA Gymnastics National Championships as the No. 12-ranked team, but the Flashes are aiming to upset as the tournament’s bottom spot.

The Flashes enter the tournament against powerhouses like Florida and defending champion UCLA, but Kent State is not satisfied with simply being there.

“We aren’t expected to do anything,” said Brice Biggin, Kent State’s coach. “We’re the 12 seed, but we know that if we go out there and hit our routines that we give ourselves a chance. We once again need to probably go out and hit at least 23 out of 24 routines to give ourselves a legitimate chance, but then we’re going to have some help from some other people.”

Biggin said he and the coaching staff talked to the team after NCAA Regionals, and the message was “be proud for what you accomplished but just qualifying is not enough.”

“We need to go in there with an attitude once again that we got nothing to lose because we are the 12 seed, and let the chips fall where they do,” he said.

Senior Christina Lenny said the team is excited about the great opportunity.

“We are just trying to keep the same mental set we’ve had the entire season,” Lenny said. “If we go in trying to think too much that is where mistakes are going to happen.”

Although the tournament will be the biggest stage the gymnasts have competed at this season, Lenny said the coaches haven’t preached anything different throughout the past couple weeks. “We need to go in there knowing that we are good enough to be there,” Lenny said. “We made it there for a reason, and we can compete with bigger teams.”

Lenny said the team has continued to practice the same routines and skills in practice, and they are working on cleaning everything up for this meet. Lenny said for the team to advance they need to have a great meet.

“(The team needs to) be consistent and hit routines, and hit clean routines because those are the teams that make it,” Lenny said.

In order to post solid scores at this meet, Biggin said the team must compete with the same success it’s had throughout the season.

“We need to go out there and do our gymnastics and give ourselves a chance to be successful, and we will see what the other teams do,” Biggin said.

Kent State will compete for the team’s first National Championship Friday in semifinal No. 2 at 6 p.m.

The meet is taking place at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland.

View Wolstein Center in Cleveland in a larger map

Contact Tyler Goddard at [email protected].