One week removed from its most chaotic meet of the year, No. 4 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (3-1) laid down its most solid, even meet of the season on senior night against No. 5 Mary Hardin-Baylor (3-2): a 275.180 – 256.005 victory that marked the Ducks’ second ranked victory of the season. 

A revamped acro event complemented a strong first half, and start value advantages in the final three events meant that the Cru never really had a chance. Oregon executed regardless, and claimed a crucial ranked win at home before it heads on the road to compete three away meets.

“​​This past week, we worked a lot on honing it into our first half, while also executing our second half, while staying mentally tough, but also present,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said.

It all showed up from the start.

The Ducks began by cleaning up what was a messy compulsory event last week against Gannon. Oregon scored a season-low 37.15 against the Knights and struggled with stability throughout, but none of that was present on Friday. Freshman tumbler Morgan Willingham, who omitted a skill in compulsory tumbling a week ago, executed well in the heat and the Ducks scored 9.200.

Oregon freshmen Angelica Martin (named NCATA Freshman of the Week after Oregon’s win over Gannon) and Cassidy Cu continued to keep their five-element acro one of the Ducks’ strongest. They haven’t scored below 9.65 this year, and matched their season-high against the Cru with a 9.85 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Susnara changed her entire seven-element acro sequence and athletes after it scored a season-low 8.45 a week ago. The full event was where Oregon struggled — a season-low 26.55 was more than two points below its previous low.

“We changed our entire acro seven heat with Bella (Swarthout) and (Bethany) Glick doing the whole thing, and so we did that for strategy purposes,” Susnara said.

The sequence isn’t new to the two athletes — they’ve been competing it in team event prior to Friday night, but the meet was the first time it was in the seven-element slot.

It paid off. Oregon scored a season-high 29.000 — the best of which were dual 9.85s in five and seven element.

“Honestly, Bella and I have been doing that press skill for a while now, and with that kind of handstand, I feel like I have a lot more control, which is nice for something in acro event,” Glick said. “Every single deduction counts, (and we compete) something that’s really well controlled, and that we can hit during team event (too).”

The Ducks continued to put the pressure on with a pyramid event that once again outscored last week’s struggling trio of heats. After 9.2 and 9.5 scores plagued the Ducks against Gannon, they didn’t go below 9.75 and scored multiple 9.900s to extend the halftime lead to 2.050.

It’s the second half, though, where Oregon thrives. Equal or higher start values in every event against the Cru already gave them a lead before either team stepped on the mat, and they ran with it.

Oregon took advantage immediately. The Ducks had a 1.100-point start value advantage in the toss event, and — despite scoring no higher than 9.600 — still won the heat by 1.500.

“It matters a lot, especially when you have teams like University of Mary Hardin-Baylor with a really strong first half,” Susnara said. “It was pretty close going into the second half, (and) so start values definitely help. Executing them makes it even better.”

The Oregon start value advantage was even more pronounced in the tumbling event — 6.95 in the Ducks’ favor. The difficulty, though, is immense: Oregon put all 60 available points in play with 10.0 values in every heat.

The Ducks paid it off again. An immense 56.750 score, while not a season-high, vaulted Oregon into a nearly insurmountable 9.050 score ahead of the team event. It’s been the Ducks’ best event this season, and a combination of freshmen and seniors handed an ideal score to Oregon.

With the lead in hand, Oregon threw down one of its most-solid team events of the season. It only showed up as a 94.530, but the Ducks completed all of their skills in what Susnara said Oregon “focused very hard on.”

After winning three of four home meets this year, the Ducks now head on the road for their three away meets this season. 

“​​I feel like some people might think that like our schedule this year, like having all home meets and then having all the away meets is a bad schedule,” Glick said. “But I feel like it’s nice to build up the confidence at home and then be able to take that and run with it.”

First up is Oregon’s first two-meet week of the year, a road trip to No. 2 Quinnipiac and No. 8 Iona. There’s important things to take from a successful homestand for Oregon, Susnara says.

“I think (it’s) just learning from our mistakes that we had at home and then dialing into the things that we adjusted in this meet,” Susnara said. “And today, our goal was being consistent in our energy.”

The Ducks face Quinnipiac on March 23 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time and Iona on March 28 at 3:00 p.m.