BEARS WIN EIGHTH-CONSECUTIVE NCATA NATIONAL TITLE

Saturday, April 29

West Liberty, W.Va.

4PM

Baylor

278.855

268.555

Oregon

BEARS WIN EIGHTH-CONSECUTIVE NCATA NATIONAL TITLE

4/29/2023 6:26:00 PM | Acrobatics & Tumbling

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Leading No. 2 Oregon by just 1.4 points midway through Saturday's NCATA National Championship, Felecia Mulkey said the top-seeded Baylor acrobatics & tumbling team "had to decide at halftime we were going to fight for it."
            They definitely did.
            After putting together their second-straight near-flawless tumbling performance, the Bears (11-0) won the team event by more than seven full points to claim their eighth-consecutive NCATA national title with a 10.3-point win over the Ducks, 278.855 to 268.555, in the final before a packed house at West Liberty's ASRC.
            "I'm always our biggest critic, so I'm proud of them and we won it," Mulkey said, "but we had to fight for it in the end. . . . Everybody had to come together and fight it out. It's hard to come in three days in a row and do as well as these young ladies do. So, they had to decide at halftime that they wanted it. And they did, they performed."
            Senior All-Americans Kamryn Kitchens and Emily Tobin finished their Baylor career as three-time champions after the 2020 meet was canceled because of COVID.
            "I've made memories the past four years I will carry with me forever, friendships I will take with me forever," Kitchens said. "It's just preparing for the next stage of life, too. Super excited for what's next, but obviously so sad it's coming to an end, too. It's been part of our life for so long."
            A two-time NCATA Most Outstanding Athlete, Tobin said Baylor has prepared her "for life beyond college with everything that I've learned being on a team like Baylor."
            "All the life lessons that I've learned also will stick with me forever," she said.
            Mulkey, trying to keep from getting too emotional, said she had not "come to terms with it," losing seven seniors.
            "I was actually crying during the meet," she said, "because I was thinking about it and it was tearing me up. Special group of athletes, for sure."
            Oregon (6-3), which was looking for its fifth national championship but first since Mulkey was the Ducks' coach in 2014, went toe-to-toe with the Bears through the first three events. Scoring 38.475 in compulsory and 29.300 in acro, Baylor had a 1.3-point lead after the first two events.
            Even with the Bears recording their second 10.0 perfect score in the open heat and first 10.0 of the national championship, Oregon kept pace and lost the pyramid event by just one-tenth of a point, 29.575-29.475. That gave Baylor a 1.4-point lead at halftime, 97.350-95.950.
            "I did say in my halftime interview that I wasn't so sure it was 10," Mulkey said, "but if they decided it was, I would take it, because I'm our biggest critic. But I'm really proud of them. And I think the officiating panel did a great job. I'm not just saying that because we won, they were consistent throughout the week. And they had some long days, too. So, if they wanted to give us a 10, we'll take it."
            The tumbling is where the real separation began. Winning all but one of the six tumbling heats, the Bears outscored the Ducks by 1.425 points in the event and doubled their lead going into the team event.
            Starting with a 9.525 by Kristen McCain and freshman Aliyah "Chibi" Thomas in the duo pass, Baylor scored at least 9.150 in each of the six heats. Thomas came back with a 9.875 score in the aerial pass, followed by a 9.825 by McCain in the 6 element and Kitchens with a near-perfect 9.950 in the open heat.
            "That pass is something that I've been working for years," said Kitchens, the 2023 NCATA Most Outstanding Athlete, "so getting to finish out doing that is just so much fun. The crowd was a ton of fun. And you just look around and see all your teammates supporting you and trusting you and knowing you can do it, that gives you everything you need to go and execute."
            Needing a strong finish to have any chance of unseating Baylor, Oregon had a fall in acro right out of the box and several glitches to post an 87.880 score in the team event. Closing with their trademark "Sic 'em!" the Bears had only a few errors in their routine and were rewarded with a 95.230 that completed the convincing win.
            "I think it's all about our practice and trusting our training and doing what we normally do," Tobin said.
            Kitchens said the team event is "something we focus a ton on in practice because that's where so many points are."
            "Coach Fee has us do it over and over again all the time at the end of practice when we're tired," Kitchens said. "So, we have a lot of confidence when we're going out there to get it done and get the points."
            Already thinking ahead to the 2024 NCATA National Championship and a possible ninth-straight national title, Mulkey said, "We're going for 100."
            "We'll take it a year at a time, but I've already started working on next year's team event," she said.
            Baylor will wrap up its week in West Liberty with the event finals beginning at 10 a.m. CT Monday and streamed by ESPN+. The Bears qualified in all but one of the 15 individual finals.