It took some time for No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling to find its groove — three events, in fact. Once it settled in, though, the machine wasn’t stopping in the Ducks’ 267.325-242.880 victory over Missouri State University.

On the road in Springfield, the Ducks (1-0) assembled a comprehensive season opener despite a six-element acro fall and low compulsory acro scores. Sophomores Angelica Martin and Cassidy Cu combined for a pair of 9.85 scores in acro before a 29.7-point pyramid event established a five-point halftime lead. They didn’t look back, and Missouri State fell further behind after struggling to execute in toss. Oregon didn’t particularly need the team event to secure its first win of the 2026 season and posted a pair of falls there, but cruised past the Bears regardless.

The Ducks’ compulsory openers were close to perfect. Aside from some synchronization struggles in compulsory acro and a 9.3 score there, little was out of place in what’s generally a warmup for teams. Tops Selah Bell and Kamryn Horiuchi took over in the toss event, where the Ducks scored 9.85. Missouri State, meanwhile, struggled to add sticks  in running tumbling and scored just 7.85 in the heat.

Martin and Cu also introduced a brand-new five-element-acro skill in their freshman year, but didn’t compete it in the same slot on Sunday. Instead, the two combined for a simplified combination in the five-element heat before entering their reverse-planche skill in the seven-element heat with an added pike and reverse dismount to get to the point value and necessary skill total. They scored 9.85 in both five and seven-element.

That pair of scores, plus a 7.9 from the Bears’ six-element group, helped offset the Ducks’ first mistake of the day. In Oregon’s six-element acro, top Mari Fukutomi and base Charlotte Lippa combined for a fall in the first skill combination of the heat. They recovered to complete the rest of the skills, and there were few issues with the other group in the synchronized heat, but a 7.6 was easily the Ducks’ lowest heat score of the day.

One of Oregon’s three event titles in 2025 came from the open pyramid, anchored by bases Blessyn McMorris and Bella Swarthout. The latter, though, is out for the 2026 season. In her place was base/tumbler Ashlynn Parlett, who stepped in and helped deliver a 9.95. 

The prior two heats of Oregon’s pyramid event passed with minimal issues, including a synchronized heat featuring Fukutomi and Bell — this time with no falls — that scored 9.85 and a 9.9 inverted pyramid with few problems. The result was a 29.7-point event which pushed the Ducks’ lead to five points at the break; that total is higher than all but one of their 2025 pyramid event totals.

A low catch to open the second half in the Ducks’ first toss heat was quickly wiped away by a series of struggles on the other side: Missouri State didn’t post a fall, but did have to shuffle its bases to catch the top in all three of its heats in the event and scored just 24.2 points. Bell entered as the top in Oregon’s open toss, but scored the team’s event-low: 9.05 (the other two heats scored 9.6 and 9.35). The Bears, though, averaged 8.07 points per heat and fell further behind.

Oregon’s stable of talented tumblers looks to continue to be its second half advantage after the Ducks recovered from synchronization issues in the duo pass to post strong trio (9.15) and quad (8.85) passes. The same rang true through Oregon’s three solo passes, where sophomores Carly Garcia (9.5), Morgan Willingham (9.8) and Briya Alvarado (9.775) combined to average 9.6 points across the individual heats.

Mistakes weren’t invisible in the Ducks’ first team event of the season: Cu and Martin missed a skill early in the event and tumbler Shea Barnes completed her pass but stumbled on the landing in the front left corner. Nyla Baynes fell on her tumbling pass — the only major mistake of the Bears’ event — but their 77.18 score wasn’t enough to overcome Oregon’s five-event lead and an 89.1 team event total.

The Ducks now return to Eugene, where they’ll wait two weeks for their home opener, against No. 3 Quinnipiac University.

Correction: Mari Fukutomi was the top involved in the Ducks’ six-element acro heat fall, not Kamryn Horiuchi. The story has been updated to reflect this change. The Emerald regrets this error.