After fighting adversity all season, MSU enters the regional championships ranked sixth out of six teams, continuing the idea it has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“I feel like this has probably been one of my biggest successes as a coach at our program here at Michigan State because of the struggles and the battles that we had this year,” head coach Kathie Klages said.

In addition to hosting Oregon State, the Spartans will compete against Nebraska, Iowa, San Jose State and Southern Utah.

When the team wasn’t sure if it even was going to make regionals, MSU is thrilled to have made it this far. To qualify, the Spartans had to be nationally ranked in the top 36, and after the Big Ten Championships, they snuck their way in and finished 36th.

“(Regionals) is a celebration of the season, and look what we’re doing,” Klages said. “We made it, and I’ve never been so happy about that number 36 in all my career.

“I never thought I’d be happy about 36 because we’re usually ranked much higher than that, but boy, that made our day when we saw that we were 36 and going to the regional championships.”

To move up in the rankings and finish in the top two, Klages said her team would have to come out with a solid performance and hope for some mistakes from the other teams.

With their highest score this season at 195.450, the Spartans probably would have to earn at least a 196.000 to be competitive for the top finishes.

MSU has the talent to earn such a respectable score, but it always has been the little details holding the team back. The team is at a competitive level, but it has limited room for error if it wants to advance.

“(We’re) making our skills big and going out aggressively and not holding back,” sophomore gymnast Shanthi Teike said. “Those details that they’ve always stressed on us all season long — if we can get those details and stick the landings, we have a good shot of being in the top two.”

After watching a recording of the team’s performance at the conference championships, Klages said she’s convinced it’s the little details preventing the Spartans from living up to their full potential.

Going into regionals, MSU has spent most of its time perfecting the details, and in the last two weeks, Klages said the team has not stopped improving.

“The difference between our team and the other teams … has to do with the landings on our tumbling passes, on our vaulting and on our dismounts,” she said. “So we’ve really been focusing on that with either requirements of you must stick (balance) beam routines with a stuck dismount or with additional drills.”

Regardless of what place the Spartans finish in, if they earn a respectable score, they’ll look at the season as a success. If they finish sixth, that’s no worse than where they started, but they’re hoping if they have flawless performances, they’ll be successful no matter what.

“I don’t even think we have any challenges because we don’t have anything to lose,” senior gymnast Nicole Argiros said. “We’re going in as the sixth team, and if we do our job, we can come out better than that.”