Matthew Soderberg | Editor-in-Chief
Baylor acrobatics and tumbling opened its season Saturday night with a 274.02-253.24 win over Mary Hardin Baylor. The Bears won each of the six events throughout the meet.
The first section, compulsory, saw the Green and Gold’s only misstep of the night as Baylor was outscored by the Crusaders during the Acro heat by .55 points. That was the only time the Bears would trail over the entire evening. After three more heats, Baylor left the first section up 36.35-35.05.
After losing the Acro heat in the previous section, Baylor regained its footing in the full Acro section with a resounding +5.15 point performance. At the end of two, the Bears led by a score of 65.7-59.25.
In the pyramid section, Baylor put up its best score ratio of the night with 29.5 points out of a possible 30. The open pyramid scored a 9.9 out of 10, one of four individual heats across the day by the Bears to hit that mark. The home squad took a commanding 95.2-87.25 lead halfway through the meet.
To open the second half, Baylor threw a 28.15 out of a 29.2 in the toss section, extending its lead to double digits. In tumbling, the Bears added another 6.3 points to the Crusaders’ deficit.
After dominating the first five events, the home team lost the percentage battle in the team event 90-87, but because their possible score was nearly eight points higher, the Bears still added another four points to their lead. Head coach Felecia Mulkey said after the meet her new team members truly impressed her.
“I am really proud of everybody that you saw out there tonight, especially those freshmen,” Mulkey said. “We have some amazing competitors out there in our freshman class, and I’m most excited about everybody’s competitive spirit.”
The Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team will be back on the mat at 1 p.m. next Saturday against Oregon in Eugene, Ore.
