(This is the 15th in a series of features on Baylor Athletics' 25 for 25, which honors Baylor's top 25 athletes in the 25-year history of the Big 12 Conference (1996-21). Selected by a panel of Baylor experts, the final list was picked from a pool of over 100 candidates that came from all 19 intercollegiate sports that the school offers. Over the next couple of months, two honorees per week will be released and will also be featured during game broadcasts on the Baylor Sports Network from Learfield IMG College.)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Until she actually got on the mat and settled into her competition routine, Kiara Nowlin was like a small bundle of nerves before every Baylor acrobatics & tumbling meet.
But now, four years after her unbelievable career ended, she gets "more nervous watching, which I don't even know how that's possible."
"I think it's because I have no control," said the 25-year-old Nowlin, a communications specialist with the City of Temple who still does tumbling clinics on the side. "When I'm on the mat, I can control what I'm doing, I know how I'm feeling, I know what I'm thinking. But then watching, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, what are they thinking?' Sometimes, I have to look away. I just get so nervous, and it's because you want them to do so well."
A native of Oxnard, Calif., Nowlin is the most decorated athlete in program history. A three-time All-American, she was named the NCATA Most Outstanding Player twice, helped the Bears win the first three of five-consecutive national championships and also captured a school-record 10 individual NCATA national event titles.
"You have people that can do the same passes that Kiara cold do," Baylor coach
Felecia Mulkey said, "but very few could do them with the same level of execution, and that's what set her apart."
After winning three World Age Games gold medals in power lifting, another one in double mini and three in cheerleading, Nowlin dreamed of competing in the Olympics, "but power tumbling is not an Olympic sport."
"That was my dream, either to go to the Olympics or compete at the collegiate level," she said. "Acrobatics & tumbling gave me that opportunity. It just felt like this sport was designed for me. It blended all of my favorite aspects of gymnastics, and it just felt right."
Nowlin's introduction to the sport was from two of her former gymnastic club teammates – Tiffany Rudzitis and Amanda Graceffa – coming to Baylor from California to be a part of something that was really just starting.
"When Tiffany went, I heard about it, but I didn't really know what it was," Nowlin said. "But, I was talking to Amanda about it, and that's when I really started figuring out what the sport was."
Even as a freshman in 2014, Nowlin had immediate success, winning the tumbling six-element heat at nationals with a perfect score of 10.0. But, her career and the program took off the next year when Mulkey came from Oregon to take over as head coach.
"That was a game-changer for us," Nowlin said, "because we had talented athletes on the team previously. We were just missing the mentality component and the level of discipline she implemented. Little things like you had to go to study hall at the same time every week, you could not miss a meeting. Those kinds of things just instilled discipline in our team, and we took that seriously on and off the mat."
As a sophomore, Nowlin won five individual NCATA event titles, was named the Most Outstanding Player and helped Baylor win its first team national championship with a win over four-time defending champion Oregon in the final.
"Of course, we wanted to win, but it was never like, 'Hey, you've got to win it!''' Nowlin said. "It was more that we needed to be the best we can be individually and as a team, and the outcome is the outcome. We can't control the outcome, but what we can control is what we put onto the mat. And I think that allowed us not to focus so much on winning, but focus on 'Hey, let's go out there and be the best athletes we can be, let's be the best team we can be.'''
Two years later, Nowlin added three more individual event titles and had a near-perfect open tumbling pass of 9.85 in helping the Bears avenge an earlier loss to Oregon with a third-straight NCATA national championship.
"It hit me precisely in my individual pass," she said. "I did my three whips to a 1 ½, and I land it. I usually land with my arms out, but I don't know, I just clasped my hands above my head. And I think it was this emotional moment for me of, 'Oh, this is it.' It was sad, because I had done gymnastics of some sort my entire life. But, I was happy, I was satisfied with what I had done, because I felt like I really left it all out on the mat, literally and metaphorically."
Nowlin followed another dream by working for a year in Hollywood as a stuntwoman for shows like, "NCIS: Los Angeles," but decided to put her public relations degree to use in taking the communications job with the City of Temple. She is now working on a master's in business administration online program through California Lutheran and should be done in nine months.
"People ask me all the time what I'm going to do with it, and I don't have a specific career goal in mind. It's not like, 'Oh, I really want to do this,''' she said. "But, I'm setting myself up for success when I do figure out exactly what I want to do. I'm just trying to further my education so that whenever I do figure out my exact career goal, I'll be ready for it."
Previous:
Johnathan Motley, Men's Basketball (2013-17)
Shea Langeliers, Baseball (2017-19)
Bayano Kamani, Men's T&F (1998-2001)
Jason Jennings, Baseball (1997-99)
Brittney Griner, Women's Basketball (2009-13)
Robert Griffin III, Football (2008-11)
Dawn Greathouse Siergij, Soccer (1997-2000)
Benedikt Dorsch, Men's Tennis (2002-05)
Corey Coleman, Football (2013-15)
Whitney Canion Reichenstein, Softball (2009-14)
Trayvon Bromell, Men's T&F (2014-15)
Stacey Bowers-Smith, Women's T&F (1996-99)
Andrew Billings, Football (2013-15)
Benjamin Becker, Men's Tennis (2001-05)
