Oregon Acrobatics and Tumbling enter its 2024 season coming off an appearance in 2023’s national championships. The Ducks unfortunately lost to their rival Baylor, even though they put up a good performance relative to the rest of their season.
Baylor just proved to be too much for the Ducks, posting a 278.855 to win its eighth straight NCATA title.
It was able to add athletes in almost every place where there was a lack of talent, including adding what was lost back into the team for this season. 2023 NCATA All-American Karly Nowak was named as an assistant coach on Taylor Susnara’s 2024 staff.
“I am thrilled to be adding Karly to our staff,” Susnara said in an interview with GoDucks. “Karly has competed in all aspects of the sport and brings a unique perspective and insight to how we run things. She completes our coaching staff and is going to bring an extreme amount of value to our program.”
Nowak will add great experience and a tremendous relationship with much of the current team, so she will add a great dynamic to the team. She competed in every event Oregon had during her time in Eugene, at a variety of positions, most notably top, base and tumbler.
Her expertise applies to all aspects of competition, and her value will extend far beyond competitions. Nowak knows what it takes for this roster to become among the nation’s best, so she is a great candidate to help this program move forward.
Baylor has had the upper hand in the most recent iterations of the rivalry, but this Ducks team expects themselves to come back and improve in 2024.
“I think we got better each week, and that is great. We now know what to expect. We’ve never made it this far and this is a team that is so great and has grown so much together,” said now-senior Kaylie Barrera to GoDucks after the Ducks’ championship loss. “I’m happy and excited to carry the culture into next year.”
The theme of this year is to improve and beat Baylor and take that next step to win the national championship.
Oregon worked hard on the recruiting trail this offseason, and signed nine players to its 2024 freshman class.
Susnara’s recruiting will aim to improve all areas that the Ducks lacked in 2023, which comes with getting the right athletes that fit the program.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of last year’s team had never experienced a full postseason, so this year will be nothing new. And for the newer athletes, they have the experience of their older teammates to fall back on.
The Ducks open their season February 11th at home against the Hawaii Pacific University Sharks, a team they did not face at all last season.
They then travel to Waco, TX on February 25th to take on the defending champion Baylor Bears, who beat the Ducks in all three meetings last season, including the National Championship competition.
On March 16th, the Quinnipiac University Bobcats make the trip all the way to Eugene from Connecticut and face the Ducks. The two schools have not met since 2022.
The Ducks then travel to Honolulu to rematch Hawaii Pacific away on March 24th and return to Eugene on April 5th for a rematch with Baylor.
Oregon finishes its regular season on April 9th with a visit to the Azusa Pacific University Cougars, who the Ducks defeated in both of their head-to-head matchups in 2023.
