It was unwanted attention.
Nevertheless, the Bowling Green State gymnastics team earned it when they frittered away an opportunity to drop Western Michigan to 0-10 in the the regular-season.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, the Falcons (4-4, 2-1) will look to bounce back when they travel battle Kent State and George Washington in the M.A.C. main gym tonight at 7 p.m.
“I think that we beat ourselves last weekend against Western Michigan, they didn’t beat us,” BG head coach Dan Connelly said. “This was and still is a young team, but they’re continuing to improve, and I think everyone’s ready to get back out there and have a better performance.”
Having proven they can compete with the Mid-American Conference’s elite in the Golden Flashes two weeks ago at the All-Ohio Championships, Connelly said the team is ready to take it a step further.
But it won’t make the task any easier.
“I think it’s good that we had a chance to see Kent State once this season, and we know we can compete with them,” he said. “They don’t lose very often at home, but we’ve done it before, and this is going to be a good challenge for us.”
KSU (8-1, 3-0), which is hosting its final home meet of the season, is ranked 19th in the country and averages a 195.4571 team score.
Head coach Brice Biggin said this will be an important meet for his team.
“We’re pretty excited because this is our last home meet, so we want to go out there … perform well and send our seniors out on a high note.” he said. “I think our conference is so evenly matched, and that makes home meets really important, because you know you have to go on the road and compete at some point.”
The Colonials don’t share the history of 47 meets as do BG and KSU– the Golden Flashes lead the series 35-12– but they have defeated the Falcons in their only two meetings.
GW (6-5) is returning from a third place finish at the Spartan Invitational in East Lansing, Mich. where they were led by Megan Wilson (9.800) on balance beam and Lindsay Parks (9.825) on floor exercise.
“We don’t know much about George Washington … their scores have been lower than ours, but I think it will still be a tough meet,” Connelly said.
Connelly says that the team’s goal is continue positioning themselves for the MAC Championships.
“Right now, we just want to continue getting better and improving our scores,” he said. “We have been working on the little things and I think that will help make a big difference for the championships.”
