Recap courtesy of Kent State Athletic Communications
Kent State 193.775, Wester Virginia 192.325
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The Kent State gymnastics team hit the road for the first time this season on Thursday night with a dual-meet competition against West Virginia in WVU Coliseum. The Golden Flashes improved to 3-0 on the young season, as their all-around team score of 193.775 triumphed over the Mountaineers' 192.325.
The Flashes won three of the four individual events and Nene Alvine concluded the meet as the top all-around finisher, accumulating a score of 38.550. Thursday's win marks the Flashes' first victory over West Virginia since 2005, snapping an eight-meet win streak in the series for the Mountaineers.
ROTATION 1 – BARS
The Flashes opened the dual-meet on the bars, where a pair of 9.800 scores by Mya Migliore and Heidi Schultz led the way. The duo tied for third place on the event, marking the only event of the night not won by a Kent State gymnast. Brynne Tsipis and Nastia Rudnitskaya were not far behind the mark for the Flashes, as they earned scores of 9.775 and 9.700 respectively.
ROTATION 2 – VAULT
A dominant showing by Alvine began to ramp up on vault, where she claimed the event title with a score of 9.850, the joint-highest score across all events in the meet. Charlie Behner and Gabby Riley recorded the joint-second highest scores for Kent State in the event, each earning a 9.675.
ROTATION 3 – FLOOR
Alvine continued to put on a show on the floor, where she matched her score on vault of 9.850 to once again lead the Flashes and win the event. Behner followed closely, earning a score of 9.825 to finish as the joint runner-up in the event, while a 9.750 from Riley was Kent State's third-best score in the event.
ROTATION 4 – BEAM
Leading the way in the final rotation for the Flashes was Schultz, who secured Kent State's third event victory of the night with a score of 9.850 on beam. Alvine and reigning MAC Specialist of the Week Alyssa Guns each earned scores of 9.775, finishing tied for second in the event.
Following a ten-day break, Kent State will hit the road again to open MAC competition at Eastern Michigan on Sunday, January 26, at 1 p.m.
