The Kent State gymnastics team will host Rutgers University and Northern Illinois tonight at 7 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center with hopes of regaining strength in their national ranking.

After a close finish last weekend in Central Michigan where the girls pushed past their MAC foe by mere tenths, the team aims to turn in another solid performance in front of what is expected to be a large crowd as the team hosts its annual “Flip for the Cure” meet.

Coach Brice Biggin feels the “Flip for the Cure” meet is something great that the school and the team does for such a worthy cause. Like the sport of gymnastics, Biggin feels that with breast cancer, if you stay ahead of the game you give yourself a lot better chance of survival.

“If we can make more people aware of the disease by having this meet, then that’s a great thing,” he said. “It’s a positive thing for everyone involved. If we get one person to go get screened and they find out about it early, then we’ve done our job to help.”

Biggin will be wearing pink, along with the other coaches, and joked that it would be the only time he would be seen in pink. However, having a wife and two young daughters, he believes the cause is well worth the temporary discomfort.

Similarly, coach Sharon Sabin believes the meet resonates deeply with many women because the disease is so wide spread.

“I guess now being a mom, and not being there for your kids to grow up is very scary,” she said. “Just having girls of my own, I hope that down the road there’s a cure or ways to prevent it.”

Sabin believes there is a great parallel between the sport of gymnastics and the fight against breast cancer. She feels that because gymnastics teaches perseverance, it can prepare the body for practically anything.

“You’d be surprised at what your body can do, and what it can handle,” Sabin said. “I think that if it happened to them (the gymnasts) down the road, they’ll be fighters, and they’ll know they can handle this. Those days where you come in the gym and you’re so sore and so exhausted, you remember the goal and you get through it.”

She believes that the girls’ strength and willpower alone will ensure success in anything they do, and hopes that today’s meet will exemplify this determination.

Biggin sees a great opportunity to gain valuable experience in today’s meet, and hopes to put up a good team score to boost the team’s national ranking. Northern Illinois has been struggling with scores so far this year, but this does not calm the coach.

“Their coaches do a good job, I’m not expecting an easy meet regardless,” Biggin said.

Sabin agrees Northern Illinois could always present themselves as a threat to Kent State and cannot be taken lightly.

“They always have good, clean gymnastics,” she said. “They’re always a team that sooner or later will sneak up and take us by surprise.”

Contact sports reporter Katie Corbut at [email protected].