Matthew Erickson has a routine.

After every race — every workout, too, he takes out one of his notebooks. He still keeps the old ones — the ones he’s had since he started keeping them in seventh grade — in his room. In his current log, he’ll note what shoes he wore, what the weather was like, what he did and how he felt.

“Maybe it sounds a little bit meticulous,” the Oregon senior said.

It’s working. With his notes and a new mentality in hand, Erickson won the NCAA men’s 800 meter indoor title earlier this year, where he ran the fastest qualifying time in NCAA history before winning the final with a kick at the bell. He took an 800m win at the Oregon Team Invite earlier this outdoor season before placing second in the Big Ten final at Hayward Field on May 18. Now, after qualifying sixth overall in the NCAA West Regional two weeks ago, he’s looking for an 800m title sweep — and one more note in his log.

He’s not picky about the notebooks, for what it’s worth. He uses the same brand every time now, a small black logbook, but he doesn’t think it’s “a big deal”. What matters is what he writes.

After winning the indoor title, he said that he’d struggled with internal pressure in the past. He placed value only in the outcome of his race, not in the running. To battle that, he planned to focus on execution during his final season at Oregon. 

“It’s about making sure you perform the best you can on any given day,” he said before the outdoor season. “If you execute your plan and the outcome isn’t quite what you want, you take that as a win because you’re coming away with lessons learned.”

There’s a benefit to it, too, he said. You become better at planning when you think deeper about the process — better at tactical races, which he said are more important in outdoor competition than indoor because of the greater available space on the track. There’s more space for him to maneuver and speed past runners on nine lanes at Hayward Field than on the banked, six-lane indoor track where he won in Virginia Beach. It pays off, eventually.

“Then, you know that when the time is right, when the fitness is there, when it’s your moment, you’ll be able to step up and execute a plan that’s there for you,” he said.

Executing plans is nothing new. Erickson started running in fourth grade — before he began to keep the logs in seventh — at home in Canada. He starred there, where he became a 10-time provincial champion in British Columbia. Since records were last updated in 2024, he still owns the BC U-23 record in the outdoor 800m, which he set last year.

He then debuted as a freshman at Oregon with a third-place finish in the 2022 Pac-12 Outdoor Championships 800m race. The next year, he’d return and take the same place — this time, he advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, where he finished 15th in the preliminary round.

As a junior, he’d expand his repertoire, setting new lifetime bests in both the 400m and 1500m races. He qualified for the NCAA West Regional again in the 800m, but was two places shy of advancing to Hayward Field for the championship.

This year, finally, he made it back.

At the Penn Relays in April, Erickson anchored Oregon’s 4x800m team. At the bell, he led a field that included Penn State, Michigan and Georgetown. He held the group on his shoulder through to the final straightaway, but was outpaced by Bulldogs anchor Abel Teffra down the stretch. Oregon finished second. Georgetown finished first.

Some time after the race, Erickson grabbed his notebook and wrote what he’d just told Ducks head coach Jerry Schumacher: “I’m never getting outkicked again.”

The last time Erickson ran at Hayward Field, there was a medal on the line: the 2025 Big Ten Outdoor Championships. There, he ran the fastest qualifying time of the 44-man field (1:46.99). Where he faltered, though, wasn’t with speed.

The final race instead became tactical. He had a plan, he said. It was to not get boxed in (that is, closed off from any potential forward move by other athletes). That wasn’t what happened.

On the second lap of the slower-than-usual 800m, Erickson was stuck behind and between competitors — pinned on the rail. He was boxed in. When the final straightaway arrived, he had to drop to the back of the field before swinging wide into the second and third lanes. He powered down the stretch. His effort was supreme.

It wasn’t, though, quite enough. Erickson’s final time, 1:47.922, was just one one-thousandth of a second slower than winner Allon Clay’s 1:47.921. 

“You can’t get away with that sometimes,” Erickson said of his race. The race was lost. His confidence, though, wasn’t shaken.

“I felt like I had a better kick than everyone on the day,” he said afterward. “I think I still did today.”

He’d talked about never getting outkicked, but this wasn’t about that. He had the better burst, but his positioning was what failed him. He had the last 100m.

“Now, it’s about executing the first 700 meters,” he said. “If you can execute the first 700m, and then you have the best last 100m, you’re going to win the race.”

Sometimes, he’ll take the notebooks out at home and read them. Other times, he just remembers what he wrote, like from when he ran a 400m race at this year’s Oregon Twilight. 

A year prior, he said, he finished the race and was “dead on the track”, according to his book. This year, he was up within the minute and taking his victory lap. He didn’t love his time, he said — he thought that he could’ve run faster than the 47.04 that won him the race.

But he wasn’t thinking about outcomes. Instead, what he talked about that day was how much better he felt than last year. Instead, what he said was that, “The effort was different this year, in a good way.”

There is, though, a time when outcomes become important. For Erickson, that time is now. There’s a medal on the line (should he qualify on Wednesday for the final on Friday evening) — recognition in what’s likely his last-ever collegiate race. Executing the plan matters, there, of course, but so does the podium.

After he won the 800m indoor title in March, Erickson said that he “never really goes into a season with time expectations.” It’s just not something he focuses on.

“Indoors breeds that, because the way you qualify is objectively on paper,” he said. It’s about the paper you see before. He’s outside now, and the only piece of paper he cares about now is in his log.

He’ll see that one after the race.

The post Why “a little bit meticulous” is just right for Matthew Erickson appeared first on Daily Emerald.

It wasn’t the team title that No. 2 Oregon wanted, but the Ducks took home a trio of individual event titles and saw two senior athletes named All-Americans on April 27 as consolation from a strong trip to the 2025 NCATA National Championships. 

The three winning heats — the Ducks qualified for 12 of the 15 possible finals —  were some of Oregon’s strongest from the season. The All-Americans, both starting senior performers, emerged for two of the Ducks’ most reliable athletes. 

Oregon’s seven-element acro champions, sophomore base Bella Swarthout and senior top Bethany Glick, only took over the heat midway through the season. The Ducks scored just 8.45 points in the heat against Gannon on March 7 — which prompted a change from Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara.

Swarthout and Glick — already familiar with each other from prior events —  were inserted with a slide-to-split, press-handstand skill.

Glick described it after their first meet with it (against Mary-Hardin Baylor) as one she and Swarthout had been doing, “for a while now,” and that she felt that the press-handstand gave her the control that she sees as better in the acro event.

The two paid it off with an individual event title and a 9.875 score on Sunday. It’s Oregon’s first-ever seven-element acro win (the Ducks won a seven-element stunt title in 2011) and the first individual event championship for both athletes.

The Ducks also took a win in potentially their most dominant heat this season, the open pyramid. It’s the only one where Oregon scored a perfect-10 this season (it did it twice, home and away against Baylor), and it won the national title with another 9.875 to match seven-element.

Swarthout, who starts as the mid-base in the heat, doubled up on event titles with the win. The heat also included bases Blessyn McMorris (her first event title), Brylie Hoover (second), Ashlyn Parlett (first) and Emily Rezner (first), top Selah Bell (first), and tumbler Shea Barnes (first) as the counter. It’s Oregon’s sixth-ever national title in the event after wins in 2019, 2014, 2012 and 2011.

Tumbler Riley Watson was the lone Duck to take home a tumbling national title. She won the six-element heat, where she turned in a 9.775 pass to take home the trophy. Watson, a senior, averaged a 9.81 score across Oregon’s three postseason meets, including a 9.850 against UMHB in the quarterfinal round. 

It’s Oregon’s seventh six-element title — the Ducks most recently took home the 2023 edition — and Watson’s second (she won as part of the quad tumbling group in 2024).

Senior Alexis Giardina was named an All-American for the second-straight year following the championships. Giardina, who competes with Oregon as a base, top and tumbler, showed unprecedented versatility in 2025 as she became one of just 12 Oregon athletes to be named a multi-time All-American.

She said before the championships that she, “just really wanted to leave Oregon satisfied with my season, whatever that may be.” 

“But, hopefully also as a leader that the upcoming classes will remember. Because I remember, the leaders are seniors here,” Giardina said. “I still reach out to them when it’s meet day, I still keep in contact, and we have a great relationship. That’s really just the senior I wanted to be.”

Senior base Blessyn McMorris was also named an All-American in a season where she returned from a yearlong Achilles injury to reinsert herself into Oregon’s starting lineup. She claimed the open pyramid national title as the bottom base after being named the 2022 Freshman of the Year, and competed in five of six events in each of the Ducks’ 10 meets.

With the 2025 season over, Oregon will now turn its attention to offseason training — much of which will involve the replacement of regular starters like Giardina and McMorris — and another run at the national title in 2026.

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It’s not often that a team can lose both starters at a position and still feel confident. But don’t sleep on Oregon’s secondary, which lost 2024 starting duo Kobe Savage and Tysheem Johnson — yet looks ready to compete in 2025. Savage and Johnson provided remarkable stability last year, but both declared for the NFL Draft and left the Ducks without a starting safety. 

Oregon, though, welcomes a stacked class that includes Purdue transfer Dillon Thieneman and blue-chip recruits Na’eem Offord and Trey McNutt. The Ducks returned exciting talent, too, including second-year athletes Aaron Flowers, Peyton Woodyard and Kingston Lopa. They’re more than ready to take the next step, and the program is confident in them, too.

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning called Thieneman “an unbelievable guy. He’s infatuated with football.” 

“His work ethic is like no other guy I’ve ever coached,” Oregon co-defensive coordinator Chris Hampton said. 

“His work ethic (impressed me),” redshirt-freshman safety Lopa said of Thieneman. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve never really played with somebody like him — just always ready to work, ready to find something new. He’s a good person too, outside of football.”

It’s clear that he has their trust, but he’s learning, too. Thieneman has spent this spring as both the field and boundary safety, he said — last year, those spots were covered by Johnson and Savage, both of whom declared for the 2025 NFL Draft ahead of spring ball. 

Johnson started 13 games in 2024 — his second season at Oregon after transferring from Ole Miss. He led the Ducks in their Big Ten Championship win over Penn State with nine solo tackles. Savage, meanwhile, started 14 games in his lone season in Eugene. He finished third on the team with 64 total tackles — including three games where he led Oregon in the category.

The Ducks’ incoming safety class isn’t short of talent, either. Lanning hauled in four-star McNutt from Shaker Heights, Ohio, while also grabbing a commitment from five-star recruit Offord, who entered as a corner but could see time at safety. Both provide potential first-year upside after playing significant snaps in high-profile high school games. 

McNutt stayed committed to Oregon after verbally agreeing in August 2024. He’s the No. 4 player in Ohio, per 247Sports, and the No. 4 safety nationally. He’s listed at 6’0’’ and 180 pounds (taller than both Johnson and Savage)

Offord, meanwhile, is 247Sports’ No. 1 player in Alabama (the 17th-best nationally), and checks in slightly larger than McNutt — 6’1’’ and 185 pounds. He was committed to Ohio State until December 2024, when he flipped to the Ducks — his half-brother, running back Makhi Hughes, also committed to Oregon out of the transfer portal from Tulane.

The depth chart gets even deeper with Oregon’s returning recruits. Flowers (two games played in 2024), Woodyard (14 games) and Lopa (six games) all look to take a second-year step with spots open in the defensive backfield. 

“Our goals are really just to communicate across the board,” Lopa said after a spring practice. “We’re trying to get everybody to play fast. That’s what Lanning says a lot. Trying to get calls out as fast as we can and get everybody lining up faster.”

The redshirt freshman had high praise for McNutt, too, who he called, “a dude,” and said that he’s, “ahead of where a lot of freshmen were last year around this time.”

The depth chart is still undecided, so in the Spring Game, keep an eye on the pairings — who’s playing with who, which players get time and whether any players slide into a new position. Any way it’s mixed, the Ducks are set up to surprise.

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No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-2) ended its regular season last Sunday with a second loss of the year to No. 1 Baylor. Despite that, the Ducks posted a season-high 283.305 points and scored their second perfect-10 of the year in the open pyramid heat. Three athletes received honorable mentions from the NCATA following the loss.

Base Bella Swarthout received her second honorable mention of the season in the Athlete of the Week category. The sophomore is integral in several of the Ducks’ heats, including the open pyramid where they scored a perfect-10. She’s also continued to perform in seven-element acro, where she and top Bethany Glick have formed a strong tandem. Swarthout competed in eight heats and team event, scoring at least 9.50 in all eight and a season-high 99.43 points in team event.

Base Angelica Martin received her fifth honorable mention of the season in the Freshman of the Week category. Martin, like Swarthout, has been one of Oregon’s most reliable contributors. She and freshman top Cassidy Cu scored a season-high 9.90 in five-element acro, and scored the same in synchronized pyramid. Martin competed in eight heats and the team event.

Top Riley Watson received her first national recognition of the season as the honorable mention in the Specialist of the Week category. Watson, a senior, scored a stunning 9.925 in her solo six-element pass against the Bears. She also scored 9.60 as a part of the quad tumbling pass, where she won a national title last season.

Three Baylor athletes — top Payton Washington, top Jordan Gruendler and base Leavy McDonald — swept the top awards, winning Athlete, Specialist and Freshman of the Week, respectively.

Oregon now awaits its final seeding for the 2025 NCATA Championship, which will be released on April 13.

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No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-1) will close its regular season on April 5 with the matchup that has defined its existence. The Ducks travel to Waco, TX to face No. 1 Baylor (8-0) for a rematch of their second meet of the season. Then, Oregon lost at home after trailing by less than two points after five events. Now, it hasn’t lost in four-straight meets and looks to shock the NCATA with an upset of the program that hasn’t dropped a meet in four years.

Here’s what to know before the Ducks and Bears face off on Saturday.

A free shot?

Oregon will likely have to go through Baylor to win a national title. This meet, though, is almost a free shot at the reigning champs. The Ducks don’t have much to lose: a loss in Waco would still mean they hold onto the second-overall spot in the NCATA Championship Rankings and face the seventh seed in the first round of the postseason. Yes, their winning streak would be snapped, but it has little reflection on their standing.

A win, meanwhile, could mean everything. Oregon hasn’t beaten Baylor since 2021, and the Bears haven’t lost a meet since then. Victory would go a long way towards making the nine-time reigning champions look fallible — and they haven’t looked it often, if ever. The Ducks would have a shot at the first-overall seed and, while they’d probably have to beat the Bears again for a national championship, would know that they could. It’s almost a free swing at the champ — and those don’t come often in sports.

Extreme execution

Since its loss to the Bears on February 22, Oregon has struggled to put together complete meets. It suffered a shaky first half against No. 11 Gannon on March 7, took its foot off the gas and didn’t post a season-high in any of the second-half events against No. 7 Mary Hardin-Baylor on March 14 and had to pull out a team-event win on the road over No. 3 Quinnipiac on March 23. It looked strong against No. 6 Iona on March 28, but the Gaels didn’t pose much of a challenge as the Ducks won by 13.260 points.

Oregon hasn’t put together a complete performance when the pressure is on since that Baylor meet. Now, it has to happen again. It’s been acro and pyramid that fuel a win one week, and tumbling and team the next. It won’t fly against the country’s best team, and the Ducks will struggle to win if they underperform in even one of the events.

Extreme execution — season-average or higher scores in nearly all of their heats — will be key.

Mentality

“I think that we let a little bit of the nerves get to us, just at the end. It was neck and neck,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said after Oregon lost to Baylor earlier this season.

It can’t happen again. Susnara preaches mental fortitude and a “0-0 mentality” — which means that every heat has to be competed with no regard for any lead or deficit.

The Ducks failed against Baylor. They made mistakes in the final event, and couldn’t overcome a slim deficit when the opportunity was there.

Odds are, Oregon will be in that situation again on Saturday, with a chance to write a different ending. That’s what the Ducks can get out of this meet: a check on where they stand in high-pressure situations before they head to the postseason.

Event to watch

This meet could be the one to say “every event.” This is the highest level of competition in the NCATA, year after year. The bar is higher than in any other meet. You should watch every event.

It will, though, come down to the team event. It always does. Watch for the slightest mistakes — check the corners of the mat for step-offs on tumbling passes and look at the formations in the back of the mat for stability. Every tenth matters.

Around the NCATA

The NCATA released its second set of Championship Rankings on April 2. None of the teams shifted from the previous set. The top eight programs qualify for the National Championships. Here’s how they stand before the Ducks and Bears meet.

1. Baylor
2. Oregon
3. Quinnipiac
4. Augustana
5. Fairmont State
6. Iona
7. UMHB
8. Limestone
9. Azusa Pacific
10. Saint Leo
11. Gannon
12. Duquesne
13. Glenville State
14. Coker
15. Lander

Here’s the NCATA Championships bracket, as it stands now:

QUARTERFINALS:

1. Baylor vs. 8. Limestone
2. Oregon vs. 7. UMHB
3. Quinnipiac vs. 6. Iona
4. Augustana vs. 5. Fairmont State

SEMIFINALS:

Winner of 1/8 vs. 4/5

Winner of 2/7 vs. 3/6

The post What to know: No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling at No. 1 Baylor appeared first on Daily Emerald.

No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-1) grabbed consecutive road wins on its East Coast trip last week — and now it’s bearing fruit. Two of the Ducks’ bases, sophomore Bella Swarthout and freshman Angelica Martin, were chosen by the NCATA to receive weekly national recognition on the back of Oregon’s 270.630-257.370 win over Iona University on March 28.

Swarthout, who was named an honorable mention for the NCATA’s Athlete of the Week award, has been a standout in Eugene this season. She’s a regular participant in eight heats, plus the team event, and has been rock-solid in all of them. 

Her newest heat is the seven-element acro, where she debuted a skill alongside senior top Bethany Glick against Mary Hardin-Baylor on March 14 that has not scored lower than 9.60 of its 10.0 start value in three meets since then. It’s the second time Swarthout has been named honorable mention in the category this season, after she grabbed the honor following Oregon’s win over UMHB.

Martin, meanwhile, is Oregon’s frontrunner for the national Freshman of the Year award. The base is similarly all-over the Ducks’ lineup sheet, and has been a reliable contributor in her first season. She’s been named Freshman of the Week once in 2025, following Oregon’s season-opening win over Morgan State University, and took the honorable mention spot four times including this week.

The Delaware native has wowed with her five-element acro skill — a slide-to-split with a 10.0 start value that was the first of its kind in NCATA competition when it debuted earlier this year. She’s also an integral part of the pyramid event, the toss event and the team event.

Oregon will finish its regular season with an away meet in Waco, TX, where it will face No. 1 Baylor (8-0) on April 5. The meet is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. PDT.

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Sports change fast.

That’s no surprise.

On March 23 — a Sunday night — I was at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle watching the last few seconds of Oregon’s NCAA Tournament Round of 32 game against Arizona in a pounding amount of noise.

One hour, two press conferences, a game story published and a Coca-Cola for my headache later, I was back out in the arena bowl. It was silent.

On my way out of the arena on Sunday night, I texted my good friend (and fellow Emerald writer) Joe Krasnowski.

Owen, 10:49 p.m.: “Why do we only get to write (sick) gamers about games that Oregon loses?”

Joe, 10:49: “Cuz there’s so many emotions that come with it. And then you save up all of ur best stuff.”

That’s what happens on stages like these, even if you don’t get to write about the winning team. Sometimes, I think writing about the team that lost is even more interesting, to be honest.

Sports journalism is amazing. I figured that out a while ago, but it hit me again in Seattle: Sports are where people go through crucial, formative moments in their life, and we get a great lens to understand it through. Some of the best stories happen on the court, but you’ve got to watch what happens well before and after, ask the right questions and try to understand them to tell the story well. 

That comes with time and experience — like I got this past weekend in Seattle.

So, here it is: To the best of my ability, here’s what I did, what I learned and what I think it meant, from a weekend spent covering Oregon men’s basketball at the NCAA Tournament.

I figure that I’ll kick this off with some stats, for sports’ sake:

Four days of coverage.

18 hours at Climate Pledge Arena.

Five press conferences.

Three stories published.

Two gamers.

2,941 words published.

107 tweets.

Eight social media standup videos.

Six chicken tenders.

Four Coca-Colas.

One Oregon win.

And one Oregon loss.

The two gamedays were pretty similar: I showed up to the arena a few hours before tip, watched (scouted, sort of) the game before — Arizona vs Akron on Friday and Colorado State vs Maryland on Sunday — and got some food. I was assigned to the Climate Pledge Arena press bridge, where I had a bird’s eye view of the court and a cool little tablet screen with a live stat feed.

I try not to pre-write too much, but I pulled a few stats before the game that I could throw in tweets later. I’d attended the opening press conference the day before, where I put together a “What they’re saying” piece that carried some of the quotes I thought would be interesting.

I recorded two videos for Daily Emerald socials before the tip: One, outside the arena, introduced our coverage while the other previewed the game. I sent them off to the socials team, and ate some pretty solid chicken tenders with peers of mine that also made the trip while we watched the rest of the Arizona-Akron game.

My game coverage happens pretty in-the-moment. When the ball is live, I’m writing live posts on X. That’s where most of the 107 posts came from. I’ve got a small spiral notebook where I write down little things that I want to remember or questions for later.

I try to write down the moments that stick during media timeouts. It’s a struggle sometimes to not put every single play into the gamer. but the flow is something like: Watch the play, Twitter, notebook, Google Doc. Somewhere in there, I weed out the less-relevant parts and get the best ones in.

At the half and postgame, I recorded short videos for socials that I fired off before heading to Oregon head coach Dana Altman’s press conference with the rest of the attending media. 

We got questions in and headed over to the media workroom, where I got in touch with my editors and filled in the gaps in my story before publishing the gamer pieces.

I try to get the game action written during the breaks in the actual game, and then add the color in later (so that the moments that make it in are the good ones that stuck with me). One of those moments was from one of the last timeouts during Oregon’s Round of 32 game on Sunday against Arizona.

Altman had his team all around him, but he wasn’t yelling like he had been earlier in the game. He was calm, and took the time to give each of his players (inaudible to me) instructions and then spent most of the rest of the timeout with his arm around Jackson Shelstad.

Shelstad ended up with the ball on the Ducks’ next and final scoring possession from the field. Altman’s actions went into the story alongside a quote from the sophomore guard where he talked about how much the loss hurt and how much each moment mattered. The action eventually made it into my Oregon-Arizona gamer:

“Finally, down two with 1.8 to tick and a second foul shot on the way — when Shelstad had to miss — he did. Oregon couldn’t grab the board. The buzzer sounded, and they headed down the tunnel as Arizona broke into jubilation.

“‘Losses like this hurt a lot,” Shelstad said. “It’s going to hurt for a while. We were right there last year and this year and just a couple different plays or free throws, anything, rebounds, could have went a different way. It’s going to sting for a little bit.’”

Some of Altman’s final words from the weekend hung in my mind until I wrote this piece, three days after he said it. They didn’t make it into the notebook, but it was from the last question asked in the press conference after the Arizona game. 

“In today’s era, you have to deal with the transfer portal opening tomorrow,” the question went. “How do you handle that conversation? Is that a distraction from the pain of this loss to look at the roster and work on it?”

His answer:

“I want our guys to be happy,” he said. “I hope they can be happy at the University of Oregon. You can’t be your best in any relationship unless you’re happy, you know, you want to be in that relationship. I hope and pray that the guys want to stay, because I, like I said, I want ’em to stay. 

“Everybody that can come back, I want ’em to come back. But they’ve got to be wanting — you know, like I said, every relationship is two-fold, I’ve been married for 41 years, I’m all in, I hope Reva (Altman’s wife) is all in, but that’s any relationship. 

“And with my players, I want ’em to be happy. And if they don’t think I’m the guy or Oregon’s the place, I understand that. Because I want ’em to want to be there so that they can be their best, academically, athletically, have fun playing ball, have fun in college. I don’t want the business aspect to take away from the fun of going to college, the fun of playing ball. 

“It’s different (now), there’s a business aspect to it, and I understand that. But, man, if you’re not having fun playing ball, if you’re not having fun with your teammates, if you don’t enjoy the four years you get to play, I’m not sure you can put a price on that.”

The players were undoubtedly having fun. So was I. 

Student journalism is unbelievably important. Everyone that supports it is — writers, editors, publishers, donors…everyone. I got the chance to go be a professional journalist for a weekend — and that’s not an opportunity that every person in my position across different careers gets. 

Did I succeed? Absolutely, and not even close to completely. I’ve got a ton of stuff that I realized I can do now that I can’t wait to get down on the page.

I can try to tell you what it was worth now, but I’m not sure what it’ll be worth down the road (even more, I hope). What I can say is that I had a great experience, got better as a journalist and soundly enjoyed myself.

And man, as long as you’re having fun playing ball, and as long as you enjoy the years you get to play…

I can’t put a price on that.

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On the back of its first road meet of the season, No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (4-1) had a standout member of its freshman class recognized once again by the NCATA. 

Base Angelica Martin was named the NCATA Freshman of the Week honorable mention following the Ducks’ win over No. 3 Quinnipiac University on March 23. Martin competes in multiple events for Oregon — and the Ducks scored at least 9.40 in every heat she participated in, per the NCATA. This week was the fourth time Martin has received either the honorable mention or overall award this season.

Iona University freshman Emerson Johnson won the week’s overall award. Johnson, a tumbler and back-base, competed in two meets for the No. 6 Gaels over the past week, against No. 7 UMHB and No. 1 Baylor.

The Ducks and Gaels face off on Friday in New Rochelle, NY. Meet time is set for 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

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For the first time in a while for No. 4 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (4-1), there were unknowns before a meet. The Ducks closed out their home slate last week without much fuss, but ahead of their first road trip to No. 2 Quinnipiac, the result was less certain.

Despite losing in four of six events, Oregon pulled out a win in the team event to secure victory. The meet, though, was defined by two falls.

Here are the takeaways from the Ducks’ win over the Bobcats:

Falls are definitive

The two falls in question came at crucial moments. First, Oregon tumbler Logan Davis, inserted into the quad pass in place of regular starter Haley Ellis, slipped on her landing. The Ducks scored 7.750 in the heat — a season low — and lost the event as a result. They trailed by 0.875 before the team event.

That was where the second fall came. Quinnipiac tumbler Tiffanie Smith missed her landing in a team event that the Bobcats lost by 2.09 points. They lost the meet by just 1.215.

Here’s what has become obvious: in top-eight meets like these programs will have to win on the road to a national championship, a single fall can sink the meet. Everything else is close enough — start values and skill. Falls defined this meet, but in March and April, they can define seasons.

Oregon can win without its best events

The Ducks lost the two events that should be considered their best — pyramid and tumbling — against the Bobcats. They scored lower than expected in tumbling, and posted a 9.600 in synchronized pyramid that wasn’t a low, but was by far (.250) the lowest score in the event.

Oregon showed up elsewhere. Their toss event, which ranged from 28.000 to 29.150 in Eugene, scored 28.800 in front of stingy judges. The Ducks set a season high in the first heat, where they scored 9.750.

That’s all to say that this team proved on Sunday that it can win even without top performances in its best events. It’s not the way to a national championship, but this was a win the Ducks needed in their quest for a top seed in South Dakota. 

A valuable win — ranking aside

The NCATA is over a month into its season, and preseason rankings have become little but a representation of how the team was expected to perform. Some programs, like current No. 3 Gannon, are sub-.500 (Oregon claimed a win over the Knights at home, while the Bobcats will face them on the road on April 5).

Quinnipiac’s second-overall position is not a misnomer. The previously-undefeated Bobcats were one of the Ducks’ stiffest tests this season, and a win in Hamden, CT. is immediately atop the Ducks’ resume.

It’s valuable in other ways, too. Victory over the Bobcats made Oregon’s streak of wins three-straight — all over top-five preseason teams. The Ducks haven’t lost to any team save No. 1 Baylor, and are well-positioned for a strong seed in April’s NCATA Championship should they win at least one of their final two meets.

That begins on Friday, when the Ducks head an hour southwest from Hamden to New Rochelle, NY to face No. 8 Iona. The meet is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

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On the back of a confident win over No. 5 UMHB, three Oregon acrobatics and tumbling athletes were recognized by the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association with weekly awards. 

Sophomore base Bella Swarthout was named an honorable mention for the NCATA Athlete of the Week award for the first time in her career. Swarthout, who competes in eight total heats for the Ducks, shone in the open pyramid, seven-element acro and the team event. Six of those heats earned a 9.50 or higher score.

After a role as a base in the open pyramid during her freshman year, Swarthout has transitioned to the mid-base role. Both years, Oregon has earned a perfect-10 score in the heat with Swarthout participating. She also debuted a new seven-element acro skill alongside top Bethany Glick against the Cru after the Ducks struggled with the heat earlier in the season and head coach Taylor Susnara made the change. The two scored a 9.85 (out of a 10.0 start value) and drew praise afterward from Susnara. 

Blessyn McMorris, who celebrated her senior night against the Cru, has been one of Oregon’s most consistent performers in 2025 and was named an honorable mention for the Specialist of the Week award. 

The senior competes alongside Swarthout in the open pyramid, and was named NCATA Athlete of the Week after the Ducks’ season-opening win over Morgan State University — still the only Duck to earn that honor this season. She competed in every pyramid heat for Oregon, scoring at least 9.75 in all three.

Angelica Martin, who was named an honorable mention for the Freshman of the Week award a week after winning it outright, has been one of Oregon’s best freshmen. Alongside fellow first-year Duck Cassidy Cu, Martin debuted an all-new five-element acro skill that has proven to be one of Oregon’s most consistently-high-scoring heats this season — the two tied their season-high 9.85 score against UMHB. She also competes the five-element slide-to-split skill in the Ducks’ team event, and is included in six total heats. 

Oregon heads on the road this weekend for the first time in 2025 to take on No. 2 Quinnipiac University on Sunday morning. The meet is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

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