By Harper Mayfield | Sports Writer
Baylor’s top-ranked acrobatics and tumbling team took down No. 8 Hawai’i Pacific on Saturday, winning 273.385-269.300. Baylor outscored the Sharks in every event save for the team event.
Baylor got a half point edge in the compulsory event and built on that lead in the acro event. Within acro, Baylor scored a 9.900 in the sixth and seventh elements.
The pyramid event saw the Bears begin to create some separation. The Bears earned over one point more than the Sharks did in the pyramid, creating almost a three point deficit at the halfway mark.
Baylor added almost two points to their lead in the toss, outsourcing HPU 28.750-27.000. The Bears followed that up with a strong performance in the tumbling event, where Baylor created another four point differential. Kam Kitchens and Emily Tobin both posted scores of 9.900 in tumbling, helping generate the Baylor lead.
Though the Bears were outscored in the team event, it wasn’t enough to overcome the lead they had already built. Having performed so well to that point, head coach Felecia Mulkey hoped for a stronger finish.
“We had an okay first half,” Mulkey said. “Our last event, the team event, was very uncharacteristic of us. Several uncharacteristic mistakes that we need to clean up. Tumbling event, they did well. That was all new tumbling that they learned today. I’m proud of the ones that got out there for the first time; all three of our individual passes were completely new and those were new passes to them. I’m proud of how high they scored. We just have to keep working and pull it together, see if we can get a good first and second half going on. We’ve got a lot of work to do, lots of room for improvement.”
Baylor will be back in action on Thursday, as they head to Marshall to take on East Texas Baptist. The next time they’ll be in the Ferrell will be Saturday, April 10 for a match with longtime rival Oregon.
