Jan. 23, 2011

Photo Gallery

WACO, Texas - Baylor competitive cheer fell in an early hole and was unable to overcome the deficit, as the Bears fell to No. 2 Oregon in their first-ever home meet on Sunday afternoon at the Ferrell Center.

"It's all part of what is happening right now," head coach Karry Forsythe said. "It is the growth of the sport for us and it is the growth of our program. We're 23 freshmen against their roster of lots of seniors, so we'll take that right now."

Oregon and Baylor split the six events, but Oregon's wide margin of victory in Compulsories, Tumbling gave the Ducks an insurmountable lead, and the Bears fell 276.178 to 262.162.

Oregon won three of the four heats in Compulsories to give it an early lead against Baylor with a score of 38.22 to 30.05. The Pyramid heat put the Bears in an early hole when Oregon took advantage of a fall to outscore Baylor 9.7 to 2.1.

The Bears rallied and outscored Oregon in the next two events, with totals of 29.103 to 26.99 in the Stunt event and 28.65 to 28.2 in the Pyramid, but Oregon maintained the lead at halftime by a score of 93.41 to 87.82.

Baylor outscored Oregon 28.42 to 28.17 in the Basket Toss event, but the Ducks maintained their lead by outscoring Baylor 53.41 to 49.91 in Tumbling to take a 174.99 to 166.15 lead into the final event.

Baylor freshman Hailey Cowan went down with an injury in the first Tumbling heat, forcing the Bears to reorganize their Team Routine during a five-minute break.

The Ducks sealed their win by outscoring Baylor 101.188 to 96.012 in the Team Routine to win the meet by 14.016 points.

More than 750 fans turned out to support Baylor's 19th intercollegiate sport in the first competitive cheer event ever held at the Ferrell Center.

"Looking up in the audience at one point to see that many fans here was overwhelming for me to have that kind of support," Forsythe said. "I'm used to being a spirit coordinator at my previous college, so I'm actually used to being here to support other teams, and to have this much fan support from Baylor and our Baylor family is incredible."

Baylor has two weeks to prepare for its next meet when the Bears hit to road to compete in Azusa, Calif. against Azusa Pacific, Quinnipiac and Fairmont State on Feb. 5. The Bears' next home meet is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Feb. 24 against Azusa Pacific and Maryland.