By Aidan O’Connor | Sports Writer
Very few teams, no matter the sport, could keep up with the sheer dominance of the Felecia Mulkey-led No. 1 Baylor acrobatics and tumbling. Seeking their 10th straight NCATA Championship, the Bears will start the postseason trek facing off against No. 8 Limestone in the quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The Bears (9-0) are coming off a record-breaking season with the goal to set new standards for the sport and its support. During the season, Mulkey won her 100th meet in the green and gold, the Bears extended their winning streak to 47 and swept the NCATA weekly awards three times. In the final meet of the season, they also scored the most Perfect 10s in a match with five and broke the NCATA attendance record versus No. 2 Oregon with 2,351 attendees.
“Every year it’s different because it’s a new team,” junior tumbler Meredith Wells said. “This team hasn’t won anything yet. Each year, we kind of have to start over and start from the beginning, and we just keep working until this point.”
Even with the success they’ve seen this season, the green and gold are not resting on their laurels and reminiscing about past victories. They are staying hungry and focused on future meets.
“We’ve had a really great season, an undefeated season, but the work is not done and we know we have to show up and be intentional and be on point and on our game,” Mulkey said. “Every single day that we go there, the gap is closing in start value. The gap is closing in skillset. It’s never been easy to win, but it’s getting harder and harder to win, which makes it way more fun.”
The first match of the NCATA Championships will be in the quarterfinals against Limestone (12-1). The last time the Saints faced off against the Bears was in their second season as a program in 2020, where they lost 277.205-263.000. Since then, the program has been on a roll, going 36-2 in the last three seasons. They have also had success in the NCATA Championships as they made it to the semifinals in 2023 before falling to Oregon (5-2).
“We want to win a championship for Baylor, but at the end of the day, all of the athletes in the NCATA are on the same team because we all want to be a championship sport, an NCAA championship sport here in the next 18 months,” Mulkey said. “We kind of look at it that way — too, big picture.”
The matchup versus the Saints and the entirety of the NCATA Championships are not just meets, but a chance for acrobatics and tumbling to grow. From being the only spring sport in the Ferrell Center to having the first-ever live band at a meet, the Bears have broken ground for the sport and introduced it to new eyes. This year’s NCATA Championships gives Baylor a chance not only to win against Limestone and secure their 10th championship but also to grow the sport and show the collegiate world that they are worthy of being an NCAA sport.
“It’s really exciting to get to this point where we’ve turned the corner with this team and are just looking towards bringing home another championship,” senior base Morgan Brown said.
