Oregon acrobatics and tumbling is onto the semifinals at the NCATA National Championships in Azusa, California, after beating King 278.800-257.260 on Thursday afternoon.
The Ducks, ranked No. 1 in the field, took down No. 8-ranked King with ease to advance. Oregon will face either Azusa Pacific or Hawaii Pacific on Friday. The Ducks have both teams this season, so head coach Chelsea Shaw’s Ducks know what they have ahead after a convincing quarterfinal win.
Oregon did well in the compulsory event to get the meet started, outscoring King 38.35-34.95 in the opening event.
The Ducks have had trouble with the second event (acro) this season but seemed to get the hang of it at the end of the regular season. Oregon was excellent in the acro event and outscored King 29.20-28.55 to lead the meet by 4.05 points.
The top-ranked Ducks continued to dominate in the pyramid event, scoring no less than a 9.70 in any of the three heats. They took a 96.80-92.40 to halftime after outscoring the Tornado by 0.35 in the final event of the first half.
Following the intermission, Oregon outscored King by 3.2 in the toss event for a lead to 125.70-118.10 heading into the final two events.
The fifth event, tumbling, is one that can produce the occasional perfect 10 with three individual heats.
The Ducks did not score any 10s, but with a 9.825 on Reagan Trussell’s aerial pass, Oregon outscored King 56.050-49.950 in the tumbling event to add onto its 181.750-168.050 lead with only the team event remaining.
The team event has been pretty close to perfect for Oregon for much of this season and was solid once again. The Ducks took the team event 97.05-89.210 to win the meet 278.800-257.260.
Should the Ducks get past Azusa Pacific or Hawaii Pacific, they’d earn a spot in the national final on Saturday.
Follow Shawn Medow on Twitter @ShawnMedow