Inside Matthew Knight Arena, Oregon’s acrobatics and tumbling team — one of just 10 NCATA Division I squads nationwide — opened its season on Saturday night. The No. 2 Ducks prevailed over No. 9 Hawaii Pacific. Despite falling behind early with a second-event red flag and remaining there for the majority of the meet, Oregon’s impressive team score boosted it to a 260.550-254.130 victory.
Acro meets are made up of six events — compulsory, acro, pyramid, toss, tumbling and team. Teams receive scores for each event, totaling up to 300 points. There’s a variety of skills involved, each evaluated by a certain event, and three judges decide on a single score for each heat.
The compulsory heats, where both teams complete four identical events, went Oregon’s way early. The Ducks took victories in the acro, pyramid, toss and tumbling heats to lead the way into the next round. In acro, Oregon scored 9.60 to HPU’s 8.75. In the pyramid, The Ducks outscored the Sharks’ 9.95-9.80. In the toss, Oregon scored 8.95 to HPU’s 8.00. In tumbling, Oregon bested HPU 8.85-8.00.
The Ducks garnered the early lead, but that soon fell as Oregon surrendered its advantage in the full-acro heat — this event consists of three heats’ worth of skills, under a 45-second timer. HPU took the first heat, 9.65-9.55, and a tough fall from an Oregon top in the second heat saw the Sharks take that one as well, 9.500-5.350. Oregon pulled back with the third heat, 9.900-9.100, but finished the second event trailing the Sharks, 64.650-63.250.
Third-year Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said after the meet, “Honestly, I told [my team] ‘good fight’ — the messaging was zero-zero, us vs us, put our tunnel vision on and go into the rest of the meet with our heads on.” It would take a massive effort to mount the comeback.
The Ducks were able to push back into competition through the pyramid event, once again three heats, which feature three-level pyramids in multiple forms.
The first heat, requiring an entry and dismount greater than 90 degrees (think a flip out of the pyramid) saw Oregon prevail, scoring 9.800-9.400.
The second heat, where synchronicity is valued between two mirror groups of athletes and a twist skill greater than 90 degrees is required, finished 9.700-9.500 in favor of the Sharks.
Finally, the open heat, where teams are able to choose their own skills given that a release skill is included, finished 9.750-9.700 to the Ducks.
At the half, though, Hawaii Pacific led, 93.450-92.300. Oregon was able to secure two of the three pyramid heats but still trailed, largely because of the 4.15 point deficit from Heat #2 of the acro event.
Next up was the toss event, which features a variety of skills where a ‘top’ shoots into the air, performing skills chosen before the meet. The first heat, where tops are required to perform two elements in a single toss, finished 9.200-9.150 to Oregon. The second heat, another synchronous toss, was scored in Oregon’s favor, 9.700-9.050, and the Ducks swept the event after prevailing in the open heat, 9.650-9.500.
However, Hawaii Pacific maintained its slim advantage, now down to just a third of a point, at 121.150-120.850 heading into the penultimate event.
The tumbling heat, where Oregon looked to earn back its advantage, contains six heats. The first three value synchronicity: the duo, which finished 8.950-8.100 to the Sharks; the trio, which finished 9.300-8.350 to the Ducks; and the quad, which finished tied at 8.600.
The back three each feature a single athlete: the aerial, which finished drawn again, this time at 9.450 to the Ducks/Sharks; the six-element single-pass, which finished 9.700-9.350 to the Sharks; and the open-single pass, which finished 9.850-9.650 to the Sharks.
Headed into the final event, Oregon was still yet to overcome the early hole it’d dug itself, but was within a point of Hawaii Pacific. The team event — both the most valuable and most difficult — arrived. As the PA told the crowd, this event combines skills from all five prior events.
The Sharks, despite a few costly falls, managed a score of 78.080 but the Ducks, needing to best Hawaii Pacific by more than three quarters of a point to win, grabbed an 85.250 score to do just that. Despite falling behind early and remaining there for the majority of the meet, Oregon’s impressive team score boosted it to a 260.550-254.130 victory.
That team event was by far Oregon’s best on the night, and Susnara said post-meet, “[We] killed it in the team event! I was super proud of them, the energy was really good, their technique was on and they really just pulled it out when they needed to.”
The crowd at Matthew Knight Arena grew into the event too — acro is by nature a positive sport, but, as Susnara said, “The fanbase here is so fun. It’s so exciting — we had a lot of fans here and families that came in from all over the country.” Susnara mentioned that she received a lei from the Horiuchi family, who were in Eugene to support freshman tumbler Kamryn Horiuchi.
Oregon now turns its focus to No. 1 Baylor, where it’ll travel for its Feb. 25 meet. The Bears, who’ve won eight straight national titles headed into the 2024 season, will prove a significant challenge for Susnara and the Ducks.
“I think that we’re going to do a lot of mental training over these next couple of weeks,” Susnara said. “one in on some of the things that were a little shaky today and figure out where our weaknesses might be and what we need to do to be solid on gameday.”
The Ducks’ meet in Waco is set for 3:00 P.M. on the 25th, and will stream on Big 12 Now and ESPN+.
