Fall on vault mars otherwise strong showing

Sophomore Christina Lenny’s teammates congratulate her after her balance beam routine at a meet March 2. GLENNIS SIEGFRIED | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: DKS Editors

Kent State sophomore gymnast Christina Lenny finished in a tie for 24th at the NCAA National Championships on Thursday in Lincoln, Neb., after a fall led to a last-place finish in vault.

“I didn’t perform exactly how I wanted to,” Lenny said. “Obviously I’m disappointed, but I had three good events.”

Lenny recorded a last-place finish in the vault, her third event in the meet, before rebounding for her best score of the night. In the uneven bars, she scored 9.775 to tie for a 29th-place finish.

In her first two events, balance beam and floor exercise, Lenny received scores of 9.725 and 9.750 to finish in 30th and 34th place in the events.

Kent State coach Brice Biggin said Lenny’s lighter training schedule because of problems with shin splints may have contributed to her finish in vault.

“She did a great job and we’re really proud of her, but her body was a little fatigued from not being able to put the numbers in,” Biggin said. “(Vault) was her best event (in the regular season), so I think everyone was pretty surprised.”

Of the 25 gymnasts in the all-around competition, Lenny finished with a score of 38.400, which tied San Jose State freshman Thomasina Wallace for 24th overall.

Utah senior Kristina Baskett won the all-around competition with a final score of 39.600.

Lenny said she enjoyed the competition and hopes to make the National Championships again next season.

“Obviously I’d like to make it again next year, but it’s really hard,” Lenny said. “If I could do it again that would be great, but making it once is a big accomplishment.”

Lenny’s performance at nationals ends the Kent State gymnastics season. The Flashes won their second consecutive Mid-American Conference title this season.

Biggin said he thought the team performed better than he expected.

“I think they exceeded our expectations,” Biggin said. “We knew that we had a lot of talent in the gym, (but) we had a pretty young, inexperienced team and we were kind of wondering who would step up.”

Lenny said the team competed well together despite its relative inexperience.

“Overall, we did really good this year,” Lenny said. “We had some mistakes, but if we had a mistake we would get together and work through it.”

Contact assistant sports editor Thomas Gallick at [email protected].