Gymnastics faces top ranking teams

Kali Price

Taking on three top 30 national teams is always a hard task, but Kent State gymnastics doesn’t have trouble posting season-high scores against high-ranked teams.

The Flashes are coming off of a Mid-American Conference win against Northern Illinois for a non-conference meet Sunday afternoon.

In their second of three road meets, the Flashes (7-2, 4-1 MAC) travel to West Virginia (6-4) in their second match-up with the Mountaineers. The Flashes will compete against Michigan State (15-4) and Auburn (2-9) also.

In the home opener this season, the Flashes beat the Mountaineers 190.875-190.525. Since the week following that meet, the Flashes have not scored below a 194.

The Flashes are now ranked No. 29 nationally, followed by one of Sunday’s opponents, West Virginia. Michigan State is ranked No. 23 and Auburn is ranked No. 20.

The Flashes now also post two top 30 gymnasts nationally. Sophomore Amy Cucinotta and freshman Phylicia Robertson are tied for No. 28 in the national floor exercise rankings.

Robertson also tied her career-high floor exercise score of 9.925 in last week’s win.

Senior Erika Linnersten ranks nationally as the No. 25 balance beam performer.

In last week’s victory, Linnersten scored a 9.85 on the beam, winning her fourth beam title of the year.

Contact gymnastics reporter Kali Price at [email protected].