It’s been 1,857 days since March 6, 2021.

It was the last time Baylor acrobatics and tumbling lost, and it happened in Eugene. Since then, the Ducks have appointed a new head coach (Taylor Susnara, after the 2021 season), and made the national championship meet twice. Both times, they lost to the Bears. The program has grown, but not past that high-water mark set five years and one month from Monday.

No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-1) faces No. 1 Baylor University (8-0) on April 6 at Matthew Knight Arena. They’re the two best teams in the nation, again, but the historical gap between them and the rest has been matched by the distance between them. Measure it however you want — Baylor’s 10 straight national titles, its 14-straight series wins, or just those 1,857 days — it’s growing until Oregon snaps the streak. The winner of Monday’s matchup will likely take the NCATA’s top seed into the postseason, but the Ducks doing so would mean overcoming a decade of Bears dominance.

Last April in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, then-No. 2 Oregon trailed by 2.1 points entering the team event in the championship meet against No. 1 Baylor. The Bears turned in their worst score of the postseason, but so did the Ducks, who scored their lowest team event of the season in the eventual loss. Afterward, Susnara said if they’d hit, they’d have had a shot.

There’s history between these two that stretches back beyond those 1,857 days, too. Baylor head coach Felecia Mulkey was
the Ducks’ inaugural coach. She brought the sport’s first four national titles to Eugene before departing for Waco, Texas, where she built another dynasty. The two programs have continued their home-and-home series, which they’ve competed every season except the pandemic-shortened 2020 (still scheduled) since 2011.

Both have been at the forefront of innovation in the sport. Oregon freshmen Angelica Martin and Cassidy Cu competed an all-new slide-to-split skill in that 2025 season, and Nya Womack’s quad-whip pass was something the 2026 freshman picked up in between the Ducks’ first two meets.

In their first meeting, a 278.080-272.530 Baylor win in Waco on Feb. 28, the Bears competed their open pyramid heat with four of those slide-to-split skills. A chain reaction of slips, though, sent it tumbling to the ground. Again, Oregon trailed by just over two points before the team event. This time, it turned in its best score of the season to that point. It still, however, wasn’t enough.

Martin and Cu have returned as staples in the Ducks’ acro event. Fifth-year base Blessyn McMorris, tumblers Morgan Willingham and Briya Alvarado and Week 3 NCATA Athlete of the Week Ashlyn Parlett have been more. But the Bears have their stable of stars, too. 2025 Division I Athlete of the Year Payton Washington, tumbler Emily Bott and freshman base Mo Arthur have held them steady. Mulkey is still there. Little has changed between the two schools.

Should the Ducks turn 1,857 into zero on Monday, it won’t win them a national championship. It won’t erase the 10 years of titles, or the five years of losses. It would, however, redefine their relationship with the nation’s top team.

Since March 6, 2021, that definition has been absolute dominance. In Eugene, and then in Azusa, California, at the NCATA National Championship later this month, Oregon wants to change that.

Monday’s meet is scheduled for 6 p.m., to be broadcast on Big Ten Plus