The Kent State gymnastics team traveled to Cleveland State for a home meet Friday, but things did not turn out according to plan.

The meet began according to script for the gymnasts as they cruised to a strong start in both the vault and uneven bars events, but late mistakes and a rally by Brigham Young pulled the final score even at 194.775.

It was a disappointing tie for Kent State despite a huge margin of victory over George Washington (190.775) and Wisconsin-Oshkosh (181.775).

“Our expectations were that we would come out and treat this like a home meet and have a good, solid consistent meet like we did the first two,” said Brice Biggin, Kent State coach.

Biggin said judging at the beam event was somewhat inconsistent but that cannot be an excuse.

“I thought (the score) was a little low,” he said. “But we didn’t attack the routines the way we had been the first two meets either.”

Despite the tied score, there were many bright spots for the Flashes as well.

Senior Christina Lenny won her second straight all-around with a score of 39.150, which was enough to hold off teammate Marie Case who posted a 38.600.

In addition to her all-around victory, Lenny also set a new personal best in the uneven parallel bars event with a 9.875 score. Case, Nikki Moore and Lauren Wozniak achieved personal bests in the vault event as well.

However, Biggin said the team looked shaky on the beam and sometimes that happens.

“We certainly didn’t get a score from the judges, but you have to make some of that happen yourself,” he said. “We didn’t do a good enough job of making it today.”

Case said focus was something the team needs to continue to improve.

“Even if we have a bad event, we have to keep it going and keep our spirits up for the next event so we can fix it,” she said.

Kent State (4-0-1) will travel to Michigan Jan. 29 for a meet that includes Maryland and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The meet will begin at 6 p.m.

Contact Tyler Goddard at [email protected].