Gymnastics topped by Kent State on Youth Day

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Closing out its home stretch in front of the Mount Pleasant community for Youth Day, CMU Gymnastics scored 195.425 in a loss to Kent State on Saturday.

The Chippewas didn't quite get the results they had hoped for, but Head Coach Christine MacDonald was still excited for the opportunity.

"I'm really happy that we can include the community, not just gymnasts but all youth," MacDonald said. "It's definitely an event where it's high energy. It's exciting and I think it really draws in a lot of excitement for youth when they can come and see exciting performances. That's what we really tried to do today, was showcase just the true enjoyment for each other's performances."

After the meet, MacDonald emphasized that her biggest takeaway was not from the final results, but from her team's mindset. After a few miscues on the uneven parallel bars, the team responded well in the final two rotations.

"I thought today, the team really showed resilience," she said. "I think that's one of the biggest takeaways that we could have from today. Coming back from an event that we struggled on, we made some lineup changes which definitely can throw things off, but people capitalized on it. It was one of our higher beam scores this year with some new faces in lineup, so I thought that was really good. We showed some composure there."

The team's score of 47.825 on bars was its lowest of the meet, but the Chippewas' performance in the event was highlighted by the individual effort of Luciana Alvarado-Reid. The sophomore earned a career-high 9.950 to get the event win.

She didn't stop there. Alvarado-Reid also registered a career-high all-around score of 39.525 and didn't log an event score below 9.825.

"Lucy is really consistent in the gym," MacDonald said. "She seems to continue to find her performance flow. That's something today that we're really proud of her for, for trusting her gymnastics and celebrating wherever she was at. Whether it was fifth up, last up, she really just did her best gymnastics and there were so many highlights for her today. I'm really happy for her bar score, that's something we've been striving for and she's definitely capable of that 10."

Starting on vault, CMU scored a 49.150 to kick off the meet. Closing out the Chippewas' lineup was senior Elizabeth Cesarone, who won the event with her score of 9.875. It was a balanced attack, as none of their lineup scored below 9.800.

On the balance beam, Alvarado-Reid and senior Adriana Bustelo shared a second-place finish, each scoring 9.850. Junior Quinn Skrupa was right behind them with a 9.825 for a third-place finish. CMU finished the rotation with a score of 48.925.

As they have done consistently, the Chippewas' best event came on the floor in their final rotation. As a team, they scored a season-high 49.475.

Graduate student Ashley Veglucci earned the event win with a career-high mark of 9.925. Behind Veglucci, a trio of CMU gymnasts in Alvarado-Reid and seniors Elizabeth Buttle and Hallie Hornbacher each scored 9.900 and tied for second place along with a pair of Kent State gymnasts.

Looking ahead, CMU will travel to College Park, Md. next Friday (Mar. 1) for a quad meet with host Maryland, George Washington and William & Mary. The meet is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Luciana Alvarado-Reid

Adriana Bustelo

Elizabeth Buttle

Elizabeth Cesarone

Hallie Hornbacher

Quinn Skrupa

Ashley Veglucci