By Dylan Fink | Sports Writer
The greatest rivalry in collegiate acrobatics and tumbling made its way to Waco on Saturday evening, as No. 1 Baylor hosted No. 2 Oregon in a showing of two powerhouses of the sport.
The Ferrell Center was host to the roars of a fiery home crowd for top-ranked Baylor’s 54th consecutive win, as the 10-time national champions recorded a 278.050-272.530 win over the No. 2 Ducks (2-1).
“The fans were amazing,” head coach Felecia Mulkey said. “They were so loud and they were engaged the entire time, so I really just think they came in clutch for us by being here.”
The Bears (4-0) got to start the match with a 3.62-point advantage over the Ducks as they headed into the first round of Compulsory. In the first event, the top two teams were neck and neck. Baylor racked in a 38.10, barely squeezing past Oregon’s 37.65.
In the second event of Acro, where the teams are no longer performing identical moves, the Ducks got the better of the Bears 29.45-28.80. Through the first two events, the Bears’ lead was cut to 1.1 as the score sat at a close 67.55-66.45.
The Pyramid event of the match proved a struggle for the Bears as a built-up stack led to the toppling of the pyramid, resulting in just an 8.95 on the attempt due to a Baylor fall. This cut the Bears’ lead to just 0.25 heading into the final three events.
“That pyramid hits 99% of the time or else we wouldn’t do it,” Mulkey said. “We weren’t expecting that to happen, but we had the rest of the second half to bounce back … I had to remind them that we’re a second-half team.”
Following the Toss event, the Bears were able to stretch their hold back to a full point as they outscored the Ducks 28.75-28.00. With just two events left in the evening, Baylor maintained a 125.10-124.10 lead over its rival competitors.
The Tumbling and Team events were no different, as the Bears found their stride on the back of an encouraging home crowd and continued to inch away from the Ducks. By the beginning of the final Team event, Baylor had stretched to a 2.25-point lead over Oregon.
The Bears scored 3.27 points better than Oregon in the Team event, posting a final lead of 5.52 points in the 278.050-272.530 win over the second-ranked team in the country.
“They just got after it in Tumbling and in Toss,” Mulkey said. “They did really well in the team event as well. I like to see them fight, so it was great to see such a fight shown today.”
Next up, the Bears will travel to compete against American International College (0-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Springfield, Mass.
