By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Not one, not two, not three, not four . . .
Who knows how long this will keep going for Felecia Mulkey?
The Baylor acrobatics & tumbling coach led the Bears to their fifth consecutive NCATA national championship Saturday night at the Ferrell Center, breaking open a neck-and-neck battle with a strong finish in tumbling and the closing team event to beat second-seeded Oregon for the fourth time in the last five years, 278.400-271.725.
"It was really special," said Mulkey, who ran her personal string to nine national championships, going back to the four she won at Oregon. "I've had (the feeling) all day. I just know. You can tell by their demeanor in the morning, eerie calm. You can always tell when they're ready and when they turn the corner. . . . So yeah, it was a great meet."
That "eerie calm" aside, Oregon (7-3) kept things interesting most of the night. The Ducks won three individual heats and trailed by less than a point going into the tumbling. But, as Baylor showed in winning four of the six individual event national titles, tumbling is kind of its thing.
Capped by impressive solo passes from seniors Hope Bravo and Kaylee Adams and sophomore Briana Harris, the Bears out-pointed Oregon in the tumbling event, 57.275-54.700, stretching the lead out to 3.75 points.
Baylor also caught a break when one of Oregon's athletes in the quad pass fell, with the Ducks scoring just 7.725. Senior Ashley Echelberger, named the NCATA Most Outstanding Athlete earlier in the day, was part of the Baylor quad pass that scored 9.225 for a 1.5-point difference.
"That was definitely a good feeling," Echelberger, also named an All-American along with Adams, Bravo and Ceara Gray. "It hit me that it was my last tumbling pass, ever. So, it was definitely a good one."
Even with a slight misstep at the end, Bravo scored a 9.700 on her aerial pass and then Adams was near-perfect with a 9.900 score on the six-element pass.
"It was an incredible experience, the experience of a lifetime," Adams said. "Right before my pass, I was tearing up, because it's the last one ever. So, I cried there, and then I felt it a lot when I finished the toss in the team event, and my teammates squeezed me so tight."
Making her debut in the open pass, replacing senior Bailey Hollier, Harris started her dynamic pass with a standing flip and posted an impressive 9.825 score to give the Bears some cushion going into the team event.
"We've been thinking about it for a while," Mulkey said of changing the lineup for Saturday's final. "We just thought it would be a strategy for us, because they've seen Bailey's pass so often and seem to know what to look for. And they haven't seen Bri. She has a different pass, she's super dynamic, and we wanted to see how it would score with this officiating group and just took a chance on it. I'm glad we did, she scored really well for the first time out. I'm excited for next year with this one."
Oregon "opened the door pretty wide" with the fall in the quad pass, "but tumbling has been our strength," Mulkey said.
"We knew if we could stay on our feet and stay on the mat, that we could pull ahead quite a bit right there," she said.
Harris also teamed with Adams for a near-perfect duo pass, but the judges gave them a 9.600 score out of a potential 10.000.
"There were a couple times where I was like, 'Ah, OK,''' Mulkey said. "(Adams and Harris) were so fantastic, and they worked so hard to get it synced."
Oregon couldn't afford any mistakes in the team event, and had a disastrous fall in a toss that cost the Ducks any chance at what would have been their fifth national championship.
"Sometimes, I'm not watching," Mulkey said of the team event. "I accidentally did see that one. I'm glad that I saw it, because I pulled our team in. I didn't have to, but I pulled our team in and said, 'You have not won this yet.' If we didn't execute, we could have been in the same shape. So, we had a little pow-wow and said, 'We have not won this. We have to go out and won it.'''
And more importantly, they had to "chase the feeling," not the trophy.
Leaving nothing to doubt, Baylor outscored Oregon in the team event, 95.850-92.550, for a final difference of almost seven points.
Harris said she had the feeling "probably after we hit the acro sequence, because I was like, 'Man, I can't cry, I can't get too excited.' Afterwards, every time we hit everything, it just got bigger and better. By the time I got to my pass, I was like, 'Oh my god, we hit this.' The feeling is here."
Winning its 30thconsecutive meet, Baylor set a program record for wins in a season with 12. In addition to the four All-Americans and Echelberger's Most Outstanding Athlete honor, junior top Joie Hensley was named NCATA Specialist of the Year.
Since she already knew about Echelberger's award, Mulkey said she had a "hard time keeping a secret because I was so excited."
"She's been overlooked all these years. She's a ninja. You've got to look at what she can do. She can do absolutely anything, so I was absolutely thrilled that she got the nod that she deserved," Mulkey said.
Baylor has won the Most Outstanding Athlete award four times in the last five years, with Kiara Nowlin taking it in 2015 and '17 and Gray last season.
"My teammates rallied around me, and it was just amazing to get recognized throughout, because there's so many amazing athletes throughout this sport," Echelberger said. "To get chosen as the MVP is just such an amazing feeling."
Tying a program record, Baylor won eight of the 15 individual event national championships.
Adams and Bravo teamed with Lexie Amrhein and Alexis Fowlkes to win Baylor's first-ever title in the six-element acro heat with a 9.675 score, with eight athletes combining to capture the inversion pyramid heat with a 9.950.
Baylor won two of the three toss trophies with wins in the 450 salto and synchronized toss and then dominated the tumbling. Adams and Harris won the duo pass with a season-high score of 9.750, then Amrhein, Echelberger, Madison Kruse and Mercy Seay claimed the quad pass title with a 9.225.
Bravo gave Baylor its fifth consecutive aerial pass championship, scoring an impressive 9.900, and then Adams capped it with a winning score of 9.650 in the six-element pass.
But, all of that was just a taste of what was to come Saturday night.
"I definitely think we got the feeling," Echelberger said. "The team event was amazing. I would love to do it again. It was just amazing with my teammates, and a great national championship."
WACO, Texas – The No. 1-ranked Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team defended its title Saturday evening, earning its fifth-consecutive National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling National Championship by defeating No. 2 Oregon 278.400 to 271.725.
Baylor (12-0) finished the regular season with a program-record 12 wins and ended the 2019 campaign on a 30-meet win streak.
The Bears took all six events and 15 of the 20 total heats, but were pushed the entire way by the Ducks (7-3) who gave Baylor all it could handle.
The Bears took a very narrow lead after compulsory, 37.675 to 37.600, and edged out the Ducks in acro, moving the total to 66.775 to 66.275 through two events.
In pyramid, Baylor squeaked by Oregon by just two-tenths of a point to take a 96.175 to 95.475 lead into halftime. The toss event was even closer, but the Bears were still able to claim the event, this time by just one-tenth of a point, extending their overall meet lead to 125.275 to 124.475.
Baylor catered to its strength in the tumbling event, recording a 57.275 event score and increasing its total lead to 182.550 to 179.175 entering the team routine. Kaylee Adams and Briana Harris put together an impressive 9.600-scoring duo pass, as well as the two highest scoring individual passes. Adams threw a 9.900 six-element pass and Harris, who hadn't competed in the open pass during the NCATA tournament, scored a 9.825.
In the team event, the Bears performed a 95.850-point routine to clinch the victory.
Additionally, the Bears captured eight individual event national championships on Saturday, which tied a program record. To start, Adams, Lexie Amrhein, Hope Bravo and Alexis Fowlkes earned BU's first-ever title in the six-element acro heat with a 9.675 score. The Bears also took the inversion pyramid heat with a 9.950 with a squad of eight athletes.
Baylor took two of the three toss trophies with wins in the 450 salto and synchronized heats before capturing four victories in tumbling. Adams and Harris took home the duo pass championship with a season-high score of 9.750, while the team of Amrhein, Echelberger, Madison Kruse and Mercy Seay claimed the quad pass with a 9.225.
Bravo earned Baylor's fifth-consecutive aerial pass championship, scoring an impressive 9.900 in the pass, and Adams took home the six-element trophy with a score of 9.650 to highlight an exciting morning of accolades for the Bears.
Head coach Felecia Mulkey has now won all nine NCATA National Championships since the sport's first national title in 2011 and is now 53-1 during her stint at Baylor.
QUOTES OF THE NIGHT
On when they got the special feeling tonight…
"I think we definitely got the feeling. The team event was amazing, I would love to do it again. It was just amazing with my teammates. A great national championship."
"It was an incredible experience, an experience of a lifetime. I got the feeling right after my pass. Right before, I was tearing up because it was my last one ever, then I felt it a lot when I finished the toss in the team event. My teammates just squeezed me so tight."
"I got mine probably after we hit the acro sequence. I was like, man, we
hit that. Every time we hit everything afterwards, it got bigger and better, and by the time I got to my pass, I was like, we really hit this. The feeling is here."
"For me, it was really special. I've had it all day. I just know. You can tell by their demeanor in the morning, the eerie calm. You can just always tell when they're ready and when they turn the corner. It was a great meet."
