By Gio Gennero | Sports Writer
No. 1 seed Baylor acrobatics and tumbling showed out in the first round of the NCATA Tournament, advancing to the semifinals after dispatching No. 8 Fairmont State 278.93-268.165 Thursday afternoon in the ASRC on the campus of West Liberty University in West Liberty, W.Va.
The Bears (9-0) didn’t drop a single heat on their way to their 25th-consecutive win.
The green and gold scored over nine points in every heat of the Compulsory event to open its seventh-straight title defense, out-scoring the Falcons 38.375-35.00 to kick off the postseason. Baylor scored a 9.5 or higher back-to-back-to-back in the Acro event to continue its dominance, and it pushed its lead to 67.85-62.00 after a 29.475-26.00 win in the second event.
The pyramid event was more of the same for the Bears, and it was even closer to perfection as they lost less than .3 points, winning the event 29.725, out of 30 possible points, to Fairmont State’s 28.600. It brought the meet score to 97.575-90.600 going into the half.
Coming out of the break, Baylor scored over nine points in all but one heat in the next two events, which were the Toss and Tumbling events. It won both events, bringing the score to 182.600-170.575 going into the final Team event.
The Bears posted a 96.330 in the team event, while Fairmont State scored 87.590. The Bears move on to the semifinals to rematch against No. 4 Quinnipiac University at 6 p.m. Friday on ESPN+.
