Baylor Acrobatics and Tumbling hosts its first home meet of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association season when the Bears take on Azusa Pacific at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26 at the Ferrell Center.
Monica Lake | Lariat Photographer

By Maleesa Johnson
Reporter

Energy levels were high as the Baylor Acrobatics and Tumbling team won its first meet of the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association season against Azusa Pacific.

The first half of the meet featured three events, each with multiple heats.

The three events were compulsories, acro heat and pyramid heat. There were 10 total heats from all three events combined.

The meet started out with rapid performances from both teams for the compulsory event.

As the first half progressed, Azusa Pacific pulled ahead. Baylor head coach LaPrise Harris-Williams did not allow the team to be distracted.

“I just told them that the meet was not over and not to worry,” Harris-Williams said. “The girls stayed focused and I am really proud of them for that.”

After halftime, the team came back with energy.

The first event of the second half, the toss event, started out cleanly for both teams.

The Bears began to gain momentum as they outscored Azusa in two of the three heats.

As the second event began, the crowd joined the team with loud cheers.

The excitement was evident. The Bears’ performance caused the excitement to increase as freshman back spot Amanda Graceffa and sophomore flyer Stephanie Rudzitis executed a perfectly synchronized tumbling pass.

“The highlight was coming back after tumbling when we found out we outscored them.” Junior back spot Hailey Cowan said.

In the double heat for the tumbling event, the Bears earned a score of 9.0 to Azusa’s 8.4.

The triple tumbling pass, performed by Cowan, freshman base Courtney Pate, and senior flyer/base Stephanie Bohmler also helped boost Baylor’s score as they earned a 9.1 compared to Azusa’s 8.5.

“I’d say making a comeback and pulling together as a team was really the best part,” junior base Tori Jackson said. “We all have to remember it’s a long meet and not to judge by the initial scores. You don’t lose in the first half.”
As the sixth and final event of the meet approached, it was clear that the Bears had made a significant comeback.

This event was a team event in which a minimum of 18 athletes must perform a synchronized two-and-a-half minute routine.

At this point, the Bears were only one tenth of a point behind Azusa.

Azusa performed its routine first and had two falls in an otherwise clean performance.

The Bears approached the floor with anticipation.

The starting value of their routine was high and, if well executed, could earn Baylor the win for the meet.

They performed it well with only minor faults. During the dance routine at the end of the event, some athletes looked close to tears with excitement.

After ending the event, the team jumped, clapped and screamed.

A few minutes later, their hopes were confirmed as the scores showed they had beat Azusa 266.84-265.75.

“The girls yelling from the side really help push us through,” Cowan said. “I know this sounds crazy, but when you’re out there, you can hear yourself breathing and it’s scary. When the girls all cheer, it blocks that out.”
The Bears are traveling to Eugene, Ore., this weekend to compete against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday. Oregon is the reigning NCATA Champion and opened its season with a 276.790-272.240 win over Azusa Pacific.

In reference to the season ahead of them, Harris-WIlliams’ goal is to keep the team focused.

“We are not going to look ahead to future meets,” Harris-Williams said. “We are staying focused and going meet by meet.”

Baylor’s acrobatics and tumbling team hosts the 2012 National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association National Championships today through Saturday at the Ferrell Center.

“We’ve done a lot of different repetitions just working with specific skills,” sophomore Lori Williamson said. “We’ve had to re-group a few times, but it has been working out great so we’re just doing as much as we can, and we’ve been working on just perfecting all the little things that we can fix.”

Teams from Azusa Pacific, Fairmont State, Maryland, Oregon and Quinnipiac will compete, making the championship a six-team bracket, and the individual event National Championships will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday after the meet.

During the last meet on March 11, Baylor defeated both Fairmont State and Quinnipiac but was not as successful against Oregon, Maryland and Azusa Pacific. The Bears lost two meets against Oregon and one meet to both Maryland and Azusa Pacific.

“I think our goal right now is just to focus on our team and to focus on what we can go out and hit and knowing that we’ve done our best whether we have a win or not,” Williamson said. “Just knowing that we’ve put out there what we’ve worked for and what we’ve practiced.”

The NCATA National Championship will be a single-elimination tournament and the team seeds have been determined based on every teams top two home and away scores.

Maryland received the No. 1 seed, and the No. 2 seed went to Oregon, therefore, they will not compete until Friday. The first round will begin on Thursday with the bottom four seeds.

After those meets, the first-round winners will compete against the top two seeds in the second round on Friday and then on Saturday the winners remaining will compete in the Championship finals.

The No. 4 seed Quinnipiac will be competing against the No. 5 seed Azusa Pacific in the quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m on Thursday. Competing at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday will be Fairmont State, the No. 3 seed, against Baylor, the No. 6 seed.

“We decided we’re going to stay as clean as possible,” Baylor head coach LaPrise Harris-Williams. “We simplified some of our skills and enhanced others. We basically just want to go in there and present the cleanest routines and skills that we can so we can get our scores maximized.”

If the Bears are victorious in the first round, they will move on to the second round to compete against Oregon in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. If the Bears defeat Oregon in the semifinals then they will advance to Saturday’s finals at 4:30 to the winner of the other bracket semifinals including Quinnipiac, Azusa Pacific or Maryland.

“Students should come out because we’re a new sport, we are on the rise and we are Baylor University,” sophomore Tori Jackson said. “We are going to continue the legend that Baylor has right now and we are going to continue to produce good things and come out victorious and be confident. Confidence is key.”