The Kent State gymnastics team squared off Saturday against Mid-American Conference foe Central Michigan, but a few minor mistakes doomed the Flashes as they fell 195.100-194.875.

Head coach Brice Biggin said he and his coaching staff were confused with where scores came from.

“When you can’t get a benefit of the doubt at home, then I’m sorry the judging was not good,” Biggin said. “When you go out there and hit 24/24 routines, and you still can’t get a score on a couple events. I am just flabbergasted and highly disappointed for our team, who fought all day and looked great.”

The No. 14 ranked Flashes were able to win the balance beam event (48.550-48.025). However, the Chippewas earned victories on the vault (49.125-48.675) and floor exercise (49.100-48.800), while tying Kent State on the uneven bars (48.850).

Senior Christina Lenny finished second in the all-around with a score of 39.225. She said the team made a few mistakes and deserved some of the scores, but overall she felt they were short changed and some scores should have been higher.

“We had girls doing near perfect routines and not getting a score anywhere near that,” Lenny said. “I think we all had really good attitudes today, and everyone was positive. We had a no-fall meet today, which is really good because we’ve had to count falls in the last few meets so that’s a great building point.”

Sophomore Lindsay Runyan won the uneven bars with a high score of 9.825. She is ranked fifth in the country on the uneven bars this season. The team was also able to post high scores on the beam event after counting falls during previous meets.

Christine Abou-Mitri, Marie Case and Runyan tied for second on the beam with a score of 9.725.

Biggin said this was the best meet of the season and can’t fault anything the girls did and was proud of the effort.

“Unfortunately, sometimes judges make mistakes,” Biggin said. “As long as we continue to perform like that, better things will happen for us. If anything we take that confidence into the next meet, and we know there’s a chance we will see (Central Michigan) again.”

Kent State (7-2-1, 1-1 MAC) will travel to Northern Illinois on Sunday, Feb. 20 to take on the Huskies at 2 p.m.

Contact Tyler Goddard at [email protected].