Losing isn’t a feeling that the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team is accustomed too.
So it left a poor taste in the Ducks’ mouth when they suffered a 278.935-274.450 loss to rival Baylor in Waco, Texas on Feb. 21.
In their first meet since that loss the Ducks rebounded with their best performance of the season and a win over Adrian College and King University at home Monday evening.
The Ducks finished with a total score of 282.970 — their best score since April 25 of last year — and set season-best marks in the pyramid and tumbling events as well.
“I think the girls really had a fire in them,” Oregon head coach Chelsea Shaw said. “No one likes losing, especially to a strong opponent but it’s part of the sport. Our girls really just put their heads down and really tried to perfect things and work on the consistency. ”
The Ducks finished first in every event of the meet, and their scores included perfect scores of 10 in the compulsory pyramid event, as well as in the pyramid release event.
Their score of 100.07 in the team event blew their previous season-high of 95.92 out of the water, and topped runner-up King by nearly 15 points.
“Team event has the most points to win, but also has the most points to lose,” Shaw said. “You wanna try to synchronize as much as you can for as much difficulty, but while executing as best as you can. We have been spending a lot of time working on the team event just because it is worth so much.
King finished second in the meet with a score of 258.310 while Adrian finished third with 238.070. Both are small, private schools; King has an attendance of 2,381, while Adrian has an attendance of 1,650. Both are coached by former Ducks: Adrian head coach Tsutae Johnson as well as King head coach Megan Bamford competed on title-winning teams while at Oregon.
“The smaller schools really have a cool environment because there’s a lot of support,” “Both those programs have done a great job building from scratch; it’s hard to start from nothing. Both those coaches are Oregon alumni, so they know how to start the right way and build a program.”
The Ducks will be in action again when they face Quinnipiac on March 12 at home.
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