Three years after the program arrived on the Oregon campus, head coach Felecia Mulkey has established the Ducks acrobatics and tumbling team to be a national contender for years to come.
With a third-place finish at last year’s National Cheerleaders Association Collegiate National Championships under its belt, Oregon opened the 2011 season with a No. 2 national ranking in the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association coaches’ poll.
After competing in stunts and gymnastics meets and competitive cheer tournaments last year, Oregon has lined up a full schedule competing exclusively under the newly developed acrobatics and tumbling meet format. Each meet will feature six different scoring categories: compulsories, stunt, pyramid, basket toss, tumbling and the team routine.
In its first competition of the season this Sunday, No. 2 Oregon traveled to Waco, Tex., to face a talented Baylor University squad. The Bears had already competed twice this year before Oregon came to town, defeating No. 3 Fairmont State in their season opener. They also led top-ranked Maryland through four events before falling behind for a narrow three-point defeat.
It was all Oregon on Sunday, however, as the Ducks kicked the 2011 season off with a 276.178-262.162 victory.
A Baylor fall in the pyramids event helped Oregon out to an early lead, followed with a strong mark of 9.8 in the basket toss heat. Baylor quickly responded by taking the stunt and, despite the fall, pyramid events to shave Oregon’s halftime lead to less than six points.
The Ducks came out after intermission to claim the tumbling event, 53.41-49.91, before closing out the meet with a 101.188-96.012 victory in the team routine.
“Overall, we’re excited for the win,” Mulkey told goducks.com. “It was our first meet of the year and there are some areas we can improve. Even after the fall in compulsories, Baylor was gaining on us. We needed to nail our tumbling round and we had some outstanding performances there.”
Looking ahead, the Ducks will showcase their talents for the first time at home this season during halftime of the Oregon women’s basketball game Thursday night. They will host Azusa Pacific at 7 p.m. on Saturday night for the team’s first of two regular season home meets. It will be Azusa Pacific’s inaugural meet of the 2011 season.
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