By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            EUGENE, Ore. – Like a parent talking about her children, Felecia Mulkey says each of Baylor acrobatics & tumbling's seven NCATA national champions are "special."
            All year, though, she's talked about how weird this 2022 team has been.
            That came through in Saturday's final at the Matthew Knight Arena, where the Bears knocked off third-seeded Gannon, 273.685-268.965, to win their seventh-consecutive national championship. It started with the green hair – even the parents' hair and dads' beards were colored with green hairspray.
            "Day 1 was normal hair, Day 2 was business buns. And then, when they advanced, they asked the staff if they could go find green hairspray," said Mulkey, who won her 11^th-straight NCATA title after winning four at Oregon. "Mabrie Hermann, our sport program administrator, went to four stores to find 15 bottles of green hairspray. If you looked up in the stands, the parents had their hair and the dads had their beards also in green. It was a family affair today."
            And then, winning all but two heats, the Bears (11-0) ended the closing team event with a mosh-pit celebration and a flex at the end with junior Emily Tobin pointing to her No. 7 jersey for the program's seventh national championship.
            "If you don't know Emily Tobin very well, she's very quiet and shy," Mulkey said of the two-time NCATA Athlete of the Year, "so that was way outside of her comfort zone."
            Mulkey was shut out of an athlete-only meeting earlier in the day, "which made me a little nervous.," she said. "But, I do trust them, and I knew it would be something that we would hopefully not get in trouble over. I had no idea."
            That was when the mosh-pit celebration was planned, "and we wanted to keep it a secret from the coaches, so we had everyone in on it," senior back/base Faith Coor said.
            "We pulled everyone in. We had hand signals," Coor said. "If we hit a routine (in the team event) that meant we had no deductions, it was like, 'Go! Do the mosh pit!' Or, we would have said, 'Abort! Abort! Abort!' But, everyone went crazy, so we went with the mosh pit. It was a perfect ending."
            Yes, it was. Another national championship. And they did it their way.
            "They're all so special, they're all so different," Mulkey said. "The journey every year is so different. Seven was fun, eight is going to be fantastic. We're going to go for another one next year."
            Scoring 9.850 or better in five of the first seven heats, Baylor won the compulsory (38.250-37.500) and acro events (29.575-28.600) to go up by 1.725 points over the Golden Knights (10-2).
            Gannon, making its first appearance in the NCATA Championship final, did win the synchronized pyramid and trailed by less than two points at halftime, 97.275-95.450.
            Hoping to take advantage of its strength in the toss event and close the gap, Gannon instead lost two of the three heats and was outscored, 28.800-28.775.
            "I'm not going to lie, we were probably just as excited right there as when they announced the final scores," Mulkey said. "Toss was not a strength of ours this year, but we won the toss event (Friday) and we turned around and won it today. That was huge for us, just to build the lead a little bit. We knew with our start values going into tumbling, if we could just simply be on our feet, we would continue to build our lead going into the team event. That gives you a little cushion."
            The biggest separator was the six-heat tumbling event, with the Bears winning every heat and dominating the Golden Knights, 56.950-54.200. Fifth-year senior Briana Harris had a near-perfect score of 9.975 in the open pass, while sophomore Kristen McCain scored a 9.850 in the aerial pass.
            "I've actually been training that pass the whole year," said McCain, who replaced junior Tori Harris in the solo tumbling pass. "I just wanted to do it for her and my team. And I was really trusting my training. I didn't really have that much pressure going into it, I was applying it."
            Briana Harris, a fifth-year senior who came back from an ACL injury, "ended up on a high note," Mulkey said.
            "They weren't going to give anyone a 10 in tumbling today," Mulkey said, "so that was a 10 for me."
            Comfortably ahead after tumbling, Baylor had a higher start value in the team event and outscored the Golden Knights, 90.660-90.540, to cap off the night and clinch the Bears' seventh-straight national championship.
            "It was quite the trajectory. And we wanted to peak today, and I think that we did," Mulkey said. "If you asked us if we could do it over again, we could still fix things, because we're never satisfied. But mentally-wise, we peaked today. They were ready all day. It was a marathon day with event finals in the morning. I'm just really proud of the team with how they pushed."
            Baylor added four individual event national championships, with Bayley Humphrey and Jordan Gruendler winning the seven-element acro event with a 9.750 score. Gruendler was also the top for the Inversion Pyramid that won with a near-perfect mark of 9.900. In the trio pass, Katie Shiffer, Aundria Crittenten and Tori Harris lamed the title with a score of 9.250.
            "I think finally hitting the team event, the last team event of the entire season to close it all out, it was just a great feeling like no other. Emotions just overcome you int hat moment, and I'm just so proud of our team."


EUGENE, Ore. – No. 1 Baylor acrobatics & tumbling won their seventh-straight NCATA National Championship on Saturday night in Matthew Knight Arena, besting No. 3 Gannon, 273.685 – 268.965.
 
The Bears (11-0) beat the Golden Knights (10-2) by 4.72 points to win head coach Felecia Mulkey's 11^th-consectutive championship in her career.
 
With the win, Baylor extended its current winning streak to 16-consecutive meets dating back to March 27, 2021. The Bears are now 22-4 in NCATA postseason meets.
 
BU overtook GU in every event, only dropping two heats overall to the Knights. GU is the only non-original NCATA institution to ever advance to the title meet. 
 
Starting off the meet, Baylor had a 9.55 in acro, 9.85 in pyramid, 9.925 in toss and a 8.925 in tumbling in the compulsory event. The Bears finished with a score of 38.25 in the event, with Gannon scoring a 37.50.
 
In the acro event, BU scored a 9.9 in the five-element, a 9.925 in the six-element and a 9.75 in the seven-element heats. The Bears totaled an event score of 29.575, while the Golden Knights came away with an event score of 28.60. Through two events, Baylor was up 67.825-66.100.
 
For pyramid, the Bears recorded total of 29.45 for the three heats. In the inversion pyramid, BU had a score of 9.875, followed by a 9.675 in the synchronized heat. To highlight the event, Baylor had a 9.90 in the open heat to total 29.45 for the pyramid event overall. The Knights scored a 29.35 in the event to total 95.45 for the half, while Baylor stayed in the lead with a halftime score of 97.275. 
 
In the toss event, BU had scores of 9.625, 9.425 and 9.75 to total 28.80 points. Gannon had 9.40, 9.65 and 9.725 to score a 28.775. Headed into tumbling, Baylor was up 126.075 to 124.225, leading by 1.85 points. 

In tumbling, the Bears scored above a 9.4 in four heats. Emily Tobin had a 9.75 in the six-element pass and Briana Harris scored a 9.975 in the open pass, tying her season-best for the heat. BU finished with a score of 56.95 while Gannon had a 54.20. Going into the final event of the meet, Baylor was leading 183.025 – 178.425.
 
The Bears had a score of 90.660 in the team event to end the meet, bringing the total to 273.685. The Knights had a point total of 90.540 from the team event to total 268.965 for the meet.
 
Earlier in the day, Baylor reigned in four individual event champion titles, winning the seven-element acro, inversion pyramid, trio pass and open pass events. With the four wins, the Bears have 40 NCATA individual event champion titles in program history.
 
To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor acrobatics & tumbling, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorAcroTumb.