Central Michigan University
Kent State
Kent State Tumbles Past Gymnastics, 193.125-192.050
2/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Feb. 24, 2006
MOUNT PLEASANT - Too many stumbles and too many falls spelled disaster for the Central Michigan University gymnastics team as it dropped a conference dual meet to archrival Kent State tonight, 193.125-192.050. CMU had a pair of falls on both the balance beam and the floor exercise, which turned a lead of more than a half-point after two rotations into a defeat of more than a point after all four rotations. CMU falls to 2-3 in the Mid-American Conference, and sits 4-6 overall, while Kent State ups its record to 2-1 in the MAC and 3-3 overall.
The meet started out well for the Chippewas, who posted a 48.425 on the vault and a 48.125 on the bars for a 96.575 total after the first two events. Kent State totaled 95.950 on the first two events. Sheena Smith was the catalyst for CMU's strong early performance, posting a 9.800 on the vault and a second consecutive 9.850 on the uneven bars. She won the bars and finished second to teammate Mattie Crawfrod's 9.825 on the vault.
"Sheena was excellent tonight," CMU head coach Jerry Reighard said. "She's quickly becoming a great role model for what it takes to be a leader in competition for us. Right now, she's been the only one putting it out there each and every meet for us. We're looking for our go-to athlete, and she's aiming to step up and do that for us on those events."
Crawford was the only other Chippewa to post high scores in all her events in the meet. She backed up her strong vault performance with a team-best 9.750 on the beam and 9.825 on the floor. She tied for first on floor and was second on beam. Junior Whitney Burton took second on the uneven bars with a career-high mark of 9.775.
Kent State took the lead in the meet with a season-best showing on the floor at the same time that CMU was struggling on the beam. Kent outscored CMU by 1.6 points on the third rotation, then cemented the victory in the meet by staying on the beam on all six of its routines while the Chippewas fell on the floor.
CMU doesn't get any time to rest and regroup as it competes again this weekend at the Masters Classic hosted by the University of Nebraska. The Chippewas will leave for Lincoln, Neb. tomorrow and compete at 2 p.m. CST on Sunday, Feb. 26 against No. 10-ranked Nebraska, San Jose State and Northern Illinois.
"I think it's going to be good for us to get right back at it on Sunday in a competitive meet," Reighard said. "I especially like that we'll all be together this weekend. We won't be able to just go away from each other and forget about what happened tonight. Hopefully, it will be a rallying point for us when we compete on Sunday."
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