After a stellar season featuring an upset to earn a spot in the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association National Championship meet, the Quinnipiac acrobatics and tumbling team had its season come to a disappointing end Saturday night, falling to the Baylor Bears 271.835-266.265 in Azusa, Calif.
Quinnipiac entered the National Championships as the No. 3 seed, and made quick work of the No. 6 Iona Gaels in the first round.
After dropping two of the first three sets in the meet, the Bobcats began the second half by taking both the toss and tumbling events by nearly two points total.
The lead was stretched by an even more impressive team event, in which Quinnipiac outscored Iona by 10.26 points. This wide margin was also helped by a sizeably larger starting score due to difficulty entering the event, a skill advantage which the Bobcats have utilized all season long.
The second round was a far taller task though, as the Bobcats now had to surmount the wall which had blocked them for the past few seasons, the No. 2 Oregon Ducks.
Even after the Bobcats fell to Oregon earlier this season, Quinnipiac head coach Mary Ann Powers stayed optimistic.
“I saw a team that needed to pick up its bootstraps a little bit,” Quinnipiac head coach Mary Ann Powers said following the win over Oregon.
Oregon won five of six events in these teams’ first meeting together Feb. 21, but the national semifinal meeting flipped the switch completely.
Quinnipiac won five of six events, only dropping the acro event. This time out, the Bobcats were also able to surmount a full point deficit in starting values across the final two events, an area which they had used to their benefit in past meets, including against Iona.
This advantage, paired with a Bobcat stumble in the six-element heat of the acro event, gave the Ducks a nearly full point advantage into the team event. However, Quinnipiac outscored Oregon 87.240-81.360 in the team event to claim the comeback victory.
“If you know you know,” Powers said. “They hit hard. It was palpable, you could feel it. The energy was incredible.”
Powers also went on to credit her squad’s resilience in the face of the team which ended their 2025 season in Sioux Falls, S.D. last year.
“Their love for each other was right out there where I needed it, and I couldn’t be prouder,” Powers said.
With the win, Quinnipiac advanced to the NCATA finals for the first time since 2018.
The only thing standing in the way of a Bobcat national title came in the form of the 10-time defending National Champion Baylor Bears. Baylor and Oregon had been the only two teams to ever win the NCATA National Championship, but the Bobcats looked to be a third.
Quinnipiac kept things close early, winning back-to-back events after dropping the first two. The Bobcats trailed by just 1.025 after these first four events.
“To be able to go out there and hold them that close for so long, and put out the best performance we could have feels so wonderful,” senior base Hailee Oswald said..
Quinnipiac continued to keep it close going into the final event, trailing by exactly two points entering the team event which they won in commanding fashion in their last two meets to advance to that point.
Top/tumblers graduate student Genesis Carson and sophomore Julia Turrisi led the charge in the team event, executing nearly all of their landings perfectly in sync.
Junior base/tumbler Mackenzie O’Hare also put together a strong showing in the team event, landing multiple cross-floor movements and capitalizing on all elements.
In the end though, Baylor continued its strong showings across the first five events and took advantage of a two-point starting value advantage for the final event.
Baylor won the final team event by a 3.57-point margin, winning the meet by a final score of 271.835-266.265.
Powers was emotional following the meet, reflecting on her time in the NCATA. This year’s championship is the final NCATA National Championship before the sport officially transitions to an NCAA championship sport.
“We were blessed…Now it’s the younger women carrying it on their shoulders because they love it and they’re passionate about it. It can’t get better than that,” Powers said. “So to have my team go out there and leave it on the mat and then watch the little girls go out there and follow them, that want to be them someday, is pretty, pretty intense.”
Powers also commented on the intermission performance between team events, which featured numerous groups of young girls performing acrobatics and tumbling skills on the mat.
“We created a sport for little kids to do, ” Powers said. “How many people get to say that?”
