No. 1 A&T to Close Regular Season at No. 4 Oregon

Friday, April 5

Eugene, Ore.

7PM

Baylor

Oregon

Team celebrates acro heat three against Augustana

No. 1 A&T to Close Regular Season at No. 4 Oregon

4/4/2024 7:13:00 PM | Acrobatics & Tumbling

Watch Live Results Notes (BU)

Bears look for season sweep of Ducks

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Eight meets into the season, the eight-time NCATA national championship Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling team is still tweaking, changing personnel, always looking for that extra point or two that can make a difference.

"We changed the structure of our team event a little, hopefully to improve our execution score," said Baylor coach Felecia Mulkey, whose top-ranked Bears (7-0) will close out the regular season with a meet against No. 4 Oregon (2-2) at 7 p.m. CT Friday at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

"We've gotten to that point in the year where, do you take more risk to get the score higher? Or do you execute what you have really well? I think we're right there. We'll make a few adjustments going into the championship, but we'll have time."

While Baylor is coming off its highest overall score (281.600) in two years in a dominating win over a two-year Augustana team led by former BU student-athlete and assistant coach Kaelyn Cowan, Mulkey said she didn't agree with that score, "to be honest with you."

The biggest discrepancy was the score in the team event, Mulkey said, with the Bears scoring a season-high 101.55. That's the first time they topped 100 since last year at Hawaii Pacific and more than six points higher than the season average coming into the meet (95.34).

"The interesting thing about that meet, when you look at the stats, notice how low all of the heat scores are compared to every other meet we've been in," Mulkey said, "but then how high our team event was. That's why, to me, it was a little lopsided. I kind of brush that one aside and think, 'Okay, our average team event score is 93, 94.' And that's what we'll shoot for when we get to Oregon because I think we'll have a great (scoring judges) panel there."

Baylor, which has won 34-consecutive meets going into Friday's matchup at Oregon, defeated the Ducks six weeks ago in Waco, 278.935-271.835. But Mulkey's two losses since coming to Baylor were road meets at Oregon in 2017 and 2021.

The Ducks dropped from second to fourth in the latest NCATA rankings after losing to Quinnipiac but are coming off their highest score of the season in a convincing win over No. 9 Hawaii Pacific, 276.915-258.345.

"When they came here, we were about two points up on them in overall start value," Mulkey said of Oregon. "But the last time I saw them compete, they had increased their start value in toss event and tumbling event. I think they did in the team event as well. So now, they're probably less than half a point below us in start value overall.

"That's why I think we can keep upping our start value, but is it really worth the execution? And that's where I think we have them, even though their toss event has a higher start value than ours. I think we have better execution. Gannon, I feel like, was the best match of the year so far. This one will be a battle."

Following Friday's meet at Oregon, the Bears will have right at three weeks to prepare for the NCATA National Championship April 25-28 in Fairmont, W. Va. Using the current rankings, the Bears would face eighth-ranked Fairmont State (6-1) in the quarterfinals, potentially Oregon in the semifinals and either No. 2 Quinnipiac (5-0) or No. 3 Gannon (6-1) in the final.

"We can increase (our start value) a tiny bit in tumbling, if we want to, going into the championship," Mulkey said. "And we can go up a tad bit in team event, if we want to. I just have to decide after this meet, is that we want to do? Or is our strategy to stay where we are, start value-wise, but I have a couple more things up my sleeve that I might want to try."

EUGENE, Ore. – No. 1 Baylor acrobatics and tumbling takes on No. 4 Oregon for the second time this season in Friday night's meet at Matthew Knight Arena, with the competition beginning at 7 p.m. CT in Eugene.

The Bears (7-0) will face the Ducks (2-2) for the second time this season, now on UO's mats. BU is on a 34-meet winning streak, dating back to March 27 of 2021.

It will be Oregon's Senior Night and the 37^th all-time meeting between the programs. Baylor leads the series 23-13 with a 7-6 record in Eugene.

Baylor is coming off a 281.600 to 269.355 win over No. 13 Augustana, having a week since the competition. The Bears recorded a season high final score in the 280s to lead the field, but also to do so for the first time since 2022. BU also had a season-high team score of 101 which hadn't been hit since 2023.

So far this season, Baylor has seen senior Riley Chimwala earn three Athlete of the Week awards from the NCATA, while Jordan Gruendler has earned two Specialist honors. Payton Washington and Emily Bott have each earned the Freshman honor as well.

The Bears have had at least 16 heats scoring a 9.0 or higher in each of their meets this season. Washington scored a 9.975 against Augie in her six-element solo tumbling pass to lead the NCATA for any pass so far this season.

Oregon hosts Baylor after making the trip to Honolulu to face Hawaii Pacific, defeating the Sharks 276.915 to 258.345 on March 24. The Ducks faced HPU twice this season as they do the Bears. It was a season-best performance for UO in Hawaii highlighted by a 10.0 score in the open pyramid.

The meet will be streamed on the Pac-12 Network, with a full recap and final scores posted to BaylorBears.com/acro after the conclusion of the meet. Live results are also available in the team's LinkTree.

To stay up to date all year long on all things Baylor acrobatics & tumbling, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram: @BaylorAcroTumb.

- BaylorBears.com -