A&T Wins Eighth-Straight NCATA Championship
Top-seeded Bears downed Oregon for the title by 10-plus points
Despite holding a thin lead at the halfway mark in the national match, the top-seeded Baylor acrobatics & tumbling team (11-0) won the team event by more than seven full points to claim their eighth-consecutive NCATA national title with a 10.3-point win over Oregon in the Finals before a packed house at West Liberty West Virginia’s sports complex.
Senior All-Americans Kamryn Kitchens and Emily Tobin finished their Baylor careers as three-time champions after the 2020 meet was canceled because of COVID-19.
“I’ve made memories the past four years I will carry with me forever, friendships I will take with me forever,” Kitchens said. “It’s just preparing for the next stage of life, too. Super excited for what’s next, but obviously so sad it’s coming to an end. It’s been part of our life for so long.”
A two-time NCATA Most Outstanding Athlete, Tobin said Baylor has prepared her “for life beyond college with everything that I’ve learned being on a team like Baylor.”
“All the life lessons that I’ve learned also will stick with me forever,” she said.
Oregon went toe-to-toe with the Bears through the first three events. Baylor had a 1.3-point lead after the first two events. Even with the Bears recording their second 10.0 perfect score in the open heat and first 10.0 of the national championship, Oregon kept pace and lost the pyramid event by just one-tenth of a point. That gave Baylor a 1.4-point lead at halftime.
“I’m proud of them, and we won it,” said Felicia Mulkey, ninth-year head coach, “but we had to fight for it in the end. Everybody had to come together and fight it out. They had to decide at halftime that they wanted it. And they did, they performed.”
Baylor won all but one of the six tumbling heats, where the Bears outscored the Ducks by 1.425 points in the event and doubled their lead going into the team event.
Closing with their trademark “Sic ’em,” the Bears were rewarded with a 95.230 in the team event to complete the convincing win.
The following day, Baylor took home five individual event titles, adding trophies in 6-element, 7-element, Synchronized Pyramid, 450 Salto Toss and Open Tumbling Pass.