The Kent State gymnastics team took home a second place finish at Michigan Saturday. The No. 11 Flashes (194.675) held off Maryland (193.800) and Illinois-Chicago (189.875) but fell to the overall winner Michigan who finished with a 195.875 score.

Kent State coach Brice Biggin said a few of the girls had uncharacteristic falls on the beam, but senior Christine Abou-Mitri scored a team-best 9.750 on the event.

Despite struggling on the beam event, the Flashes stepped up and had success on the other three events that followed.

Sophomore Lindsay Runyan posted a career-high score on the uneven bars with a 9.925. Her score also tied for the sixth-best score on the event in Kent State history.

Senior Christina Lenny was able to make up for her fall on the balance beam by finishing first on the vault event with a score of 9.900. Lenny and Marie Case also posted solid scores of 9.875 on the uneven parallel bars.

Biggin said the girls continued to fight and stay positive throughout the meet even though there were a few instances where scoring was not as consistent as they would have liked. “They got better as the meet progressed,” Biggin said.

Abou-Mitri led the team with an all-around score of 38.925 and finished third overall in the meet behind Abigail Adams of Maryland (38.975) and Michigan’s Kylee Botterman (39.525).

The Flashes (6-1-1) will open up Mid-American Conference play Sunday Feb. 6 at Bowling Green at 2 p.m.

Contact Tyler Goddard at [email protected].