EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 2 Oregon Ducks (4-1) acrobatics and tumbling team trailed the No. 4 Iona Gaels (2-2) in the meet total after the acro, pyramid, and toss events, but outscored the Gaels by almost five points in the tumbling event, leading to a 268.105-265.210 win.
It was the first time this season the Ducks trailed for multiple events against an opponent that wasn’t No.1 Baylor. Facing a 1.900 meet total deficit entering the tumbling event, the Ducks knew they needed their strongest event to come through for them, as it has all season.
“I’m so happy with how they executed and really turned around because being one-plus difference down going into [tumbling event] can be a little stressful,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said following the meet. “I think that everyone did a really good job boosting each other up. And some of the freshmen there, like [Nya Womack] and [Nyla Lassiter], just really stepped up.”
The Ducks started the meet sharp in the first event, scoring a new season-high total in the compulsory with a 38.250 to take a 0.700 meet-total lead. Oregon scored a 9.000 or better in every heat in the compulsory for the first time this year, highlighted by a near-perfect 9.950 in the compulsory toss heat.
Things took a turn for the worse in the synchronized six-element heat in the acro event for the Ducks when Aubrey Edge grabbed the feet of top Maya Khauv and attempted to lift her onto her shoulders, but Edge lost her balance and dropped Khauv onto the mat.
The officials initially announced a 7.590 score for the Ducks’ six-element heat, but before resuming the meet and starting the pyramid event, the officials changed the score for the heat to 6.450, the lowest score in any heat for the Ducks since 2022. Susnara, after the meet, said that she felt the score change was “kind of aggressive,” but thought the 6.450 was “more accurate” to what they thought they might score.
The score change gave Iona a 1.350 lead in the meet total, a deficit the Ducks would have to overcome over the course of the rest of the meet.
The Ducks started the comeback in the pyramid by outscoring Iona by either 0.050 or 0.1000 in every heat of the event. However, Iona reasserted itself in the toss event, as senior toss Ty Upton nailed her back salto layout in the open heat to the tune of a 9.750 score. The Gaels outscored the Ducks by 0.750 in the event and had a 1.850 lead entering the tumbling event.
The Ducks blew the Gaels out of the water in the tumbling event, as Iona had issues in the group tumbling passes. In the trio pass, Iona freshman Haley Nalty was out of sync with the other two tumblers, and in the quad pass, two Gales tumblers fell at the end of their passes. Oregon outscored Iona in every heat of the tumbling event, and those mishaps resulted in Oregon having a 1.300 advantage in the trio pass and a 3.300 advantage in the quad pass. Oregon’s solo tumblers also continued to shine as sophomore Briya Alvarado dazzled the open pass with a season-high 9.900 score to cap off the tumbling event.
Iona did end the meet with a cleaner team event as they outscored Oregon by 0.130 in the final event of the meet, but it wasn’t enough as Oregon held on to win.
“I told the team right out the gate, ‘We got the win, let's be happy with that.’ But at the end of the day, we've had way too many times where we win the meet because the other team messes up.” Susnara said after the meet. “So next week, going into Hawaii, we're really trying to be consistent, execute, so that way we can feel really happy and proud after the meet.”
The Ducks will compete against the No.13 Hawaii Pacific Sharks in Honolulu, Hawaii. But don’t let the destination or that it’ll take place on Wednesday during spring break lead you to believe this is a vacation. The team knows they have a lot of room to improve, especially after their most recent performance.