No. 2 A&T Secures Sixth-Straight National Title

WACO, Texas — The Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team won its sixth-straight national championship on Friday night at the Ferrell Center after defeating No. 1 Azusa Pacific 279.790-276.465 in the 2021 NCATA National Championship Final. The Bears (6-1) have won every championship since head coach Felecia Mulkey joined the program, as she has now won her 10th career title as a head coach.

To begin the night, Baylor scraped by in the compulsory event, outscoring Azusa 38.825-38.400. BU took the acro event 29.750-29.075 after earning scores of 9.975, 9.850, and 9.925.

In the pyramid event, the Bears outscored the Cougars 29.500-29.450 as this was the closest margin of victory of the meet. Going into halftime, Baylor was ahead 98.075-96.925.

After the break, Baylor took the toss event 28.975-28.675 and then in tumbling, BU outscored Azusa Pacific 57.950-57.575. Junior Mercy Seay earned a 9.950 in her six-element pass and sophomore Tori Harris earned a 9.800 in her open pass.

Baylor prevailed in the team event, scoring a 94.790, while Azusa Pacific scored a 93.290, as the Bears secured the national championship.

QUOTE FROM COACH MULKEY
“I just think they’re unshakeable. Azusa Pacific was awesome and they just kept bringing it and kept bringing it. These guys were eerily calm before the meet. I asked them, ‘Is this eerily calm? What am I seeing here?’ And they were just ready to go. I couldn’t be more proud of them, they came in and cleaned some things up, even from yesterday. Our team event wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be today, but it was enough. They’re a team and they’re just unshakeable. It doesn’t matter who’s standing across the mat, they’re just going to go out and execute the way they need to execute.”