UNFINISHED BUSINESS
4/22/2020 9:17:00 PM | Acrobatics & Tumbling
Young A&T Team Was on Upward Trajectory When Season Ended
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Even with small junior and senior classes, Baylor acrobatics & tumbling coach Felecia Mulkey saw a "special dynamic" in a young team that was 6-0 when the rest of the season was canceled last month due to COVID-19.
"I think there's a relief that the majority of them get to come back and do it again," Mulkey said, "but I think they wanted to see the end of this year, too. They feel like they have some unfinished business."
The five-time defending national champions lost the chance to win a sixth title when the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association followed the NCAA's lead and canceled the rest of the season. That decision came down just three days after Baylor defeated Presbyterian College and Saint Leo University at a tri-meet in Clinton, S.C.
"For the first time in my 10 years of coaching the sport, we actually had a spring break," Mulkey said. "Everybody was so excited to get a breath, rest their bodies and come back that Sunday and get after it. My team actually found out via our private Facebook page that our season was over. . . . That made it a little harder to swallow, too, because we didn't get a final huddle or even hugs from everybody. It was just done."
Coming into the season, the feeling around the country was that maybe for the first time since Mulkey arrived at Baylor six years ago, the Bears were vulnerable. Oregon received two first-place votes in the coaches' preseason poll and seemed like the best bet to end a Mulkey reign that included four national titles at Oregon.
"This was an interesting year all around," said Mulkey, whose team was ranked No. 1 with 23 of a possible 26 first-place votes. "Everyone around our organization thought this would be a rebuilding year, and it definitely had a different dynamic. We had a small junior and senior class – small but mighty, I would say.
"The freshman and sophomore classes really had to step up and compete in places that in other years maybe they didn't have to. Right around the time of the Oregon meet, we started hitting our stride. The trajectory we were on was amazing. That's the saddest part is just seeing where they would have ended up, because they were headed in the right direction."
After opening the season with wins over UMHB and 10th-ranked Limestone College, Baylor got its first test and passed with flying colors. Second-ranked Oregon led through the first four events, but the Bears dominated the tumbling and closing team event to win by a comfortable 5.875-point margin.
"We knew if we could keep it on the mat and land in tumbling, we would be good to go," Mulkey said after the Feb. 23 meet that attracted a crowd of nearly 2,000 at the Ferrell Center.
In what turned out to be the final home meet of the season, freshman Tori Harris recorded a perfect 10.0 on the open tumbling pass to help the Bears defeated fifth-ranked Gannon, 290.650-280.665.
"Honestly, this was one of my favorite years, aside from the fact that we didn't get to finish it," Mulkey said. "But, the journey from August until the beginning of March was just one for the books for me, just the way they fought and matured. It does make it exciting for next year, because they're going to come in hungry and hit the ground running."
Besides Harris, Mulkey singled out juniors Bri Harris and Madison Kruse and sophomores Tawn Gurnsey and Sophia Ranni, "but really, I can't think of one person who didn't (step up their game), quite honestly."
"(Bri Harris) was getting these skills and taking her game to a new level to where by the time our season ended, she was in a class by herself with the tumbling passes she had," Mulkey said. "She was not done this year, she had not plateaued. (Tori Harris) was really just getting started, too, and had the great showing at the meet against Gannon. Gosh, there's just so many."
While they had an uncharacteristic bobble in the team event in their final meet, Mulkey said the Bears were "just about to ramp it up" with some new skills and faces on the mat.
"We had a lot of new tumblers that had emerged and stepped up to the plate that we were going to put out there," she said.
On the team's Facebook page, Mulkey posted stories about each of the last regular-season meets that were canceled and left blanks for the student-athletes to fill in and tell "the rest of the story" in their virtual meets.
The goal is to "end the season in style and finish it out the way we wanted to," Mulkey said. Split into five smaller groups, they will write their own stories from the NCATA National Championships that were scheduled for this weekend in Eugene, Ore., and "somehow splice something together across the country" for a presentation in next Monday's video team meeting.
"It's going to be more comical than anything else," Mulkey said, "but just something to put some closure on the year and something to just laugh and be together again."
Losing just six seniors from this year's team, Mulkey added a nine-player class in November, signing five bases and four tops.
"Their strengths should change the dynamic in a good way," Mulkey said. "Not that we needed changing, but just up the game a little bit. Our goal next year is to be able to put some different skills out there that our fans have not seen before and really kind of change the game as a whole. They're going to be hungry. It will just be a different dynamic and a different league. There will be some names you hear, our freshman class is very strong."
Baylor Bear Insider
Even with small junior and senior classes, Baylor acrobatics & tumbling coach Felecia Mulkey saw a "special dynamic" in a young team that was 6-0 when the rest of the season was canceled last month due to COVID-19.
"I think there's a relief that the majority of them get to come back and do it again," Mulkey said, "but I think they wanted to see the end of this year, too. They feel like they have some unfinished business."
The five-time defending national champions lost the chance to win a sixth title when the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association followed the NCAA's lead and canceled the rest of the season. That decision came down just three days after Baylor defeated Presbyterian College and Saint Leo University at a tri-meet in Clinton, S.C.
"For the first time in my 10 years of coaching the sport, we actually had a spring break," Mulkey said. "Everybody was so excited to get a breath, rest their bodies and come back that Sunday and get after it. My team actually found out via our private Facebook page that our season was over. . . . That made it a little harder to swallow, too, because we didn't get a final huddle or even hugs from everybody. It was just done."
Coming into the season, the feeling around the country was that maybe for the first time since Mulkey arrived at Baylor six years ago, the Bears were vulnerable. Oregon received two first-place votes in the coaches' preseason poll and seemed like the best bet to end a Mulkey reign that included four national titles at Oregon.
"This was an interesting year all around," said Mulkey, whose team was ranked No. 1 with 23 of a possible 26 first-place votes. "Everyone around our organization thought this would be a rebuilding year, and it definitely had a different dynamic. We had a small junior and senior class – small but mighty, I would say.
"The freshman and sophomore classes really had to step up and compete in places that in other years maybe they didn't have to. Right around the time of the Oregon meet, we started hitting our stride. The trajectory we were on was amazing. That's the saddest part is just seeing where they would have ended up, because they were headed in the right direction."
After opening the season with wins over UMHB and 10th-ranked Limestone College, Baylor got its first test and passed with flying colors. Second-ranked Oregon led through the first four events, but the Bears dominated the tumbling and closing team event to win by a comfortable 5.875-point margin.
"We knew if we could keep it on the mat and land in tumbling, we would be good to go," Mulkey said after the Feb. 23 meet that attracted a crowd of nearly 2,000 at the Ferrell Center.
In what turned out to be the final home meet of the season, freshman Tori Harris recorded a perfect 10.0 on the open tumbling pass to help the Bears defeated fifth-ranked Gannon, 290.650-280.665.
"Honestly, this was one of my favorite years, aside from the fact that we didn't get to finish it," Mulkey said. "But, the journey from August until the beginning of March was just one for the books for me, just the way they fought and matured. It does make it exciting for next year, because they're going to come in hungry and hit the ground running."
Besides Harris, Mulkey singled out juniors Bri Harris and Madison Kruse and sophomores Tawn Gurnsey and Sophia Ranni, "but really, I can't think of one person who didn't (step up their game), quite honestly."
"(Bri Harris) was getting these skills and taking her game to a new level to where by the time our season ended, she was in a class by herself with the tumbling passes she had," Mulkey said. "She was not done this year, she had not plateaued. (Tori Harris) was really just getting started, too, and had the great showing at the meet against Gannon. Gosh, there's just so many."
While they had an uncharacteristic bobble in the team event in their final meet, Mulkey said the Bears were "just about to ramp it up" with some new skills and faces on the mat.
"We had a lot of new tumblers that had emerged and stepped up to the plate that we were going to put out there," she said.
On the team's Facebook page, Mulkey posted stories about each of the last regular-season meets that were canceled and left blanks for the student-athletes to fill in and tell "the rest of the story" in their virtual meets.
The goal is to "end the season in style and finish it out the way we wanted to," Mulkey said. Split into five smaller groups, they will write their own stories from the NCATA National Championships that were scheduled for this weekend in Eugene, Ore., and "somehow splice something together across the country" for a presentation in next Monday's video team meeting.
"It's going to be more comical than anything else," Mulkey said, "but just something to put some closure on the year and something to just laugh and be together again."
Losing just six seniors from this year's team, Mulkey added a nine-player class in November, signing five bases and four tops.
"Their strengths should change the dynamic in a good way," Mulkey said. "Not that we needed changing, but just up the game a little bit. Our goal next year is to be able to put some different skills out there that our fans have not seen before and really kind of change the game as a whole. They're going to be hungry. It will just be a different dynamic and a different league. There will be some names you hear, our freshman class is very strong."
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