Koby Kessler didn’t run the first time he stepped onto the track as an athlete at Hayward Field. 

Back then, the now-collegiate freshman track and field decathlete was in high school; he’d come from Canby, 95 miles north of Eugene, for the 2021 OSAA Track and Field State Championships. He stepped on the surface and just walked — an entire lap, before the meet. He tried to soak in the moment.

“It’s definitely a surprising feeling,” Kessler said. “It’s a monumental feeling, I would say.”

Then, he had the dream of an Oregon-born athlete: to run in green. Both his parents earned degrees in Eugene. He isn’t dreaming any longer.

At May’s Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Kessler stepped on the same track — this time in a new kit. After one day, he led the decathlon field. After another day, he finished with a personal-best 7,303 points and a fourth-place trophy. Next to his name, this time, there was an O.

He’s in-state talent, which is exactly what Oregon head coach Jerry Schumacher values. More than a quarter of the Ducks’ rostered track and field athletes this year are in-state students. The commitment is real. Oregon’s complete track and field program boasts the joint fourth-most in-state talent (28% Oregon-born athletes) of any varsity sport; men’s track and field and cross country (33%) lauds the most. At this weekend’s OSAA Championships, the next generation will arrive, and the Ducks will be there to meet it.

“I love it,” Schumacher said. “They get to come here and actually compete at Hayward because obviously we always want to keep our talent in-state; as much as we can, we want to keep our talent in-state.”

In 2024-25, Kessler is part of an Oregon men’s program that swept both the indoor and outdoor Big Ten Championships. The women won both the indoor conference and national titles, as well as the Big Ten cross-country crown. Kessler’s decathlon at the outdoor edition on May 15 and 16 included two first-place event finishes — in the 100-meter and long jump — in front of a home crowd. 

“I’m from Oregon, so it definitely means a lot more to have this on my chest and represent this school,” he said after the first day of the Big Ten Championships. “That plays into the pressure as well.”

If there was pressure, he didn’t seem to feel it. Just before running a 10.69-second 100m race (another personal best), he shed a beanie to reveal dyed hair, with a twist: a green duck silhouette on a blonde canvas, applied by his teammates. Kessler grinned into the camera. 

“I love the pressure,” he said. “I perform more under pressure.”

He’s an athlete that Schumacher said Oregon tracked for a while: “Seth (Henson), our multis coach, was talking about (Koby) for a couple of years,” he said. “Having in-state talent — that’s what we want to keep. We want to put a fence around our state.”

Kessler isn’t the only one who has paid off. Paris Olympian Jaida Ross is from Medford. Reigning Big Ten men’s 3000-meter steeplechase winner Benjamin Balazs is from Portland. Thirty of the 108 athletes rostered by Oregon track and field this year list their hometown as in-state — Schumacher sees that as a victory. The outdoor season is his chance to show it off (and the trophies are proof of concept). He plans on grabbing more.

This weekend, though, is about the future.

The 2025 OSAA Championships bring athletes from all six classifications, 1A through 6A, to Eugene for a three-day track and field showcase. They’ll run on the same track and jump in the same pit as legends. It’s an opportunity — for them and Schumacher’s Oregon program.

“Getting a chance to compete at Hayward Field is what this place is all about,” Schumacher, who plans on attending the event, said. “It’s special for the kids, and that’s good for us. It’s good for our program.”

It’s the very best of Oregon — all of it, all in one place. The athletes get their moment on the track like Kessler and many of his teammates did.

Show out, and they might just be coming back.

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Collegiate acrobatics and tumbling took another major step towards NCAA Championship status on Thursday.

The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics voted on May 15 in favor of a recommendation that Divisions I, II and III sponsor legislation that would confirm acrobatics and tumbling as a Championship sport. It would be potentially approved at the 2026 NCAA Convention in Washington D.C. — which would then allow its earliest competition to occur with the 2027 season.

The sport, which has been an NCAA Emerging Sport for Women since 2020, has been on a steady track for adoption as an NCAA Championship Sport. Adoption would mean that acrobatics and tumbling would compete in a season-end NCAA Championship, like other association sports. The 2026 NCAA Convention, where the deciding vote would occur, is scheduled for January 14-17, 2026, with the first championship to be competed the following spring.

In its release, the NCAA noted that the recommendation is “contingent on official confirmation of the sport’s sponsorship and participation numbers for spring 2025 competition, which will occur over the summer.” 

Acrobatics and tumbling is currently run by the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association, which hosted its first meet in 2010. The NCATA organizes and facilitates the National Championships every year, which invites eight teams and select non-team competition athletes to a postseason playoff. In April 2025, No. 2 Oregon lost to No. 1 Baylor in the NCATA Championship.

Oregon’s acrobatics and tumbling program has won four NCATA Championships since its inception in 2010. Head coach Taylor Susnara, a former All-American at Oregon, will enter her fifth season as the Ducks’ head coach in 2026.

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The line between satisfaction and disappointment is thin.

It’s one that Oregon acrobatics and tumbling drew on the mat when it made a run to the 2025 NCATA National Championship … and lost. It’s now been 11 years since the Ducks have taken home the sport’s ultimate prize — and more than four since they’ve beaten rivals and 10-time reigning champions Baylor University, to whom they lost in the final.

Yes, the Ducks won seven meets, took home a trio of individual event titles and boosted two athletes to All-American nods. They hit their highest score in seven years in their final meet of the regular season.

But no, they didn’t get the team national title that they’ve now been chasing for more than a decade.

In that sense, then, this season may go with all the rest: an all-but-dominant campaign where Oregon was better most of the teams — as it’s usually been, better than all but one.

Of course there was satisfaction — “I’m really, really proud of how they competed this weekend,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said after the Ducks’ loss to Baylor.

The line is thin, though, and there was disappointment, too. 

Susnara said before the season that she wanted to, “knock (Baylor and head coach Felecia Mulkey) down here soon.” Oregon took three swings at the Bears — and landed wide left, right and left again. They got close, but never landed their knockout blow.

It was, though, a new level of success for Susnara, who completed her fourth season as the head coach in Eugene with six total ranked victories and a second career national championship meet appearance.

Both the senior class — the first to spend their entire career in Susnara’s program — and the freshmen, who earned multiple weekly awards throughout the season, anchored the program’s present and future. Two of the seniors, Alexis Giardina and Blessyn McMorris, were Oregon’s All-Americans; Giardina earned her second career honor, while McMorris returned from a junior season spent on the sidelines with an Achilles injury to receive her first.

Oregon’s standout performances, a best-since-2021 score (281.205 points) against Morgan State University in its first meet and then a best-since-2018 total (283.305) at Baylor on the final day of the regular season, showcased a ceiling that hadn’t yet been hit under Susnara, either.

Neither was the “meet of our lives” that she said before the postseason Oregon would need for a title, but it was more than the Ducks had ever achieved under her leadership.

Oregon’s 2025 season — one of unprecedented but not-yet-ultimate heights — is in the books.

In 2026, the chase is the same: constant pursuit of one of collegiate sports’ greatest dynasties.

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Of course it was these two. Of course it came down to the team event.

Oregon and Baylor stared each other down all season. They were both near-perfect. But, in the final event, one fell.

It wasn’t the Bears, who won their 10th-straight national title on Saturday in South Dakota.

“We didn’t do as well as we wanted to in team event as we wanted to,” Baylor head coach Felecia Mulkey said. “We did enough, and that’s what it’s all about.”

The No. 1 Baylor Bears (12-0) capped their perfect season with a third victory in 2025 over No. 2 Oregon (7-3), 276.015-266.355 in the championship meet. The nation’s two best programs still came down to the wire after the first five events went Baylor’s way, but the Ducks posted a season-worst score in the team event to drop to the now 10-time reigning national champion Bears.

“We talked about just leaving it all out there,” Oregon senior tumbler Rachel Furlong said. “It was our last meet with this particular team — we just wanted to have fun today, and we had everyone here encouraging us. So, even though we didn’t have the outcome that we wanted, we all had the most fun. This has been the best team to be a part of this year.”

The two programs that have defined a sport locked eyes in a first-half staring contest where neither truly blinked. 

Oregon put up its worst compulsory acro score of the tournament — 8.775 — in the same heat where it struggled last time out against the Bears. 

“I don’t know if it’s better or worse to make a mistake at the beginning or the end, per se,” Susnara said. “I joke that comp acro is the worst heat of the meet, because everyone’s nervous. They were able to shake that off and execute throughout the rest of the meet.”

There wasn’t much else to pick apart in an event where all four pyramid and toss heats scored 9.675 or higher; standing tumbling, especially with five judges (in regular-season meets, the number is three) watching.

There’s a lot that sets champions apart. These two bring flair that nearly no other school does.

The acro event began with Oregon freshman duo Cassidy Cu and Angelica Martin’s reverse planche, slide-to-split five-element skill that they debuted earlier this season — unseen in NCATA competition before 2025.

“I can’t imagine being a freshman and being in the position they’re in,” Furlong said. “Not only are they on the team competing, they’re in huge roles. Angelica and Cassidy have an entire acro heat to themselves, and they’ve hit every single time.”

The flair swung all the way through to Bears standouts Leavy McDonald and Jordan Gruendler’s similar seven-element heat that adds an on-the-mat turn to the end of Cu and Martin’s skill. The two scored a perfect-10 in the heat against the Ducks earlier this season, on April 5 in Waco, TX.

For the Bears, who had already posted two perfect-10.0 scores in acro heats on the week before Saturday, the bar was ceiling-high. 

They didn’t touch perfection in the heat in the title meet, but did post a trio of strong scores that included a 9.950 in the five-element heat and 9.925 in seven-element. Oregon shot back with two 9.8-plus scores in those events, but continued to trail.

The search for perfection hit a high in the pyramid event.

Last time the two met, the Bears posted a perfect event — three 10.0 scores — to put the Ducks in a halftime hole. With the trophy watching, it wasn’t perfection they found, but it wasn’t far away, either.

The Bears posted two 9.875 scores, in the synchronized and open pyramid heats, to outduel the Ducks’ 9.850 in the open heat.

“It’s really competitive,” Oregon sophomore base Bella Swarthout said. “A lot of teams can put out really awesome pyramids, and there’s teams scoring 10s all year round.”

Oregon posted a trio of 9.675–plus scores, including their event-high in the open pyramid that it’ll compete for an event championship on Sunday. Senior top Bethany Glick, one of the program’s standout performers, had to give her inversion skill a second push after she couldn’t do it the first time, but completed the heat with few further issues.

It took until the end of the fourth event for Oregon to win its first heat of the day — in the open toss, where the Ducks finally outscored the Bears 9.625 to 9.600. The deficit was still there, but the streak of 12 Baylor heat wins no longer was.

Oregon’s team event wasn’t perfect — missed skills included a fall from tumbler Shea Barnes and a struggle in the synchronized acro portion that involved top Selah Bell. Baylor wasn’t perfect, either; an incomplete tumbling skill held the Bears back.

“I’m sad, and a little disappointed with how our team event went today,” Susnara said. “I think that if we hit our normal and executed the way we know we can, I think we would’ve had a good shot at it.”

The Ducks, who scored 91.030 and 90.530 in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, slumped to a season-worst 86.630 in the event. The door was wide open, and despite just a 94.190-point team event (the Bears’ worst of the postseason) that followed, Baylor stepped through into history.

“That was not an easy championship to win — by any means,” Mulkey said. “Our start values were the same. We had to go out and hit what we were going to hit. There was no fear, and no doubt on our side. It was the mindset today.”

But, as they’ve been for the last decade, Baylor was inevitable. They were ultimate competitors. They were — and still are — national champions.

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It was close.

By the time No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling made it to the team event of its semifinal matchup with No. 3 Quinnipiac University, it was oh-so-close. The Bobcats, who had led after the toss event only to relinquish their slim lead in the tumbling event, trailed by just 0.95 points.

The Ducks, though, had been behind before. Earlier this season, they trailed Quinnipiac at the same place in a regular-season meeting in Hamden, CT. It was a team event win that saved Oregon that day on the road.

On Friday, it was the same solution. Oregon (7-2) posted a 90.530-point score in the final event to slide past Quinnipiac (8-2) 270.455-263.595, and secure its berth in the final round. The Ducks struggled in the first half despite a season-high score in five-element acro and trailed at the break, but pulled ahead in the final event and eventually downed the Bobcats for the second time in 2025.

The two teams tied in the compulsory event — another sign of how evenly-matched the two schools are. Since Susnara took her first position as an assistant coach with Oregon in 2019, the Ducks had posted a 2-3 record against the Bobcats before Friday’s meet. 

Five-element acro prompted the Ducks’ best score of the meet, a 9.925 season-high from freshman duo Angelica Martin and Cassidy Cu. It’s one of Oregon’s most consistent events, and the two have continued to be an engine in Oregon’s second event.

The Ducks scored less than nine points (8.925 against QU) in six-element acro for the second meet in a row, though, and eventually dropped the event despite a 9.625 score in seven-element.

A trio of high scores in pyramid couldn’t salvage the lead, either; despite Oregon posting three straight scores over 9.750 in what’s regularly been its best event. Quinnipiac rocketed back with three scores over 9.800 to secure a halftime advantage that stood at 0.725 points.

Just like the regular-season meet, the Ducks had failed to win any of the three first half events. 

But then, just like in the regular season, they began to fight back. It started with a toss event win that cut the margin to just 0.475 points in the Bobcats’ favor. Oregon scored a 9.625 in the 450 salto toss — one of the few heats where its start value is set at 9.90 and not 10.0. It was a gasp for air.

The tumbling event backed it up. Six-element tumbling led the way for the second day in a row — with an event-high 9.825 points — and the Ducks took the lead for the first time of the afternoon. They weren’t in the driver’s seat — a 0.95-point lead doesn’t warrant that.

What happened next did.

The Bobcats are one of the few teams who approach Oregon’s lofty 109.23-point team event start value. Quinnipiac, though, scored just 84.620 of a possible 106.12 points and left the door swinging open.

Oregon didn’t need a second glance.

The Ducks threw down a 90.530-point performance that, while by no means their best, handed them the keys to the final round of the NCATA Championships. It was exactly what they needed exactly when it was needed most.

Their prize?

A rematch with either No. 1 Baylor or No. 4 Augustana, in Saturday’s final. The Ducks are 0-2 against the Bears this season — the only team to whom they’ve lost in 2025 — and have not faced the Vikings this year. The championship meet is set for Saturday, at 3:00 PM Pacific Time.

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No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling is moving on.

It wasn’t perfect, but the Ducks got it done in a clean victory over a team they’d seen before — and in the postseason, that’s all they needed.

“It set us up to succeed at the peak,” Susnara said. “Today wasn’t perfect, so I think tomorrow we have some things that we can work on, and we can perfect and make better. Hopefully, that’ll be good enough to then hopefully advance onto Saturday’s meet.”

The Ducks (6-2) handled the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor Cru, 270.855-252.180 in a NCATA Championships quarterfinal matchup that held close in the first half before exploding into a Ducks blowout in the second. The No. 7 Cru (7-4) weren’t competitive late, much like the meeting the two teams had earlier this season, and Oregon was relatively comfortable as it celebrated its first postseason win of the year.

Oregon scored 9.450 or higher in three of four compulsory heats, which Susnara highlighted as an event the Ducks would focus on after some struggles in the regular-season finale against No. 1 Baylor. 

“I think comp acro went a lot better today than it did versus Baylor,” Susnara said. “It was minor, minor things (today), but all-in-all, I was really happy with the execution there.”

The first half was mostly smooth sailing for a team that has shined in acro and pyramid this season; aside from struggles in six-element acro that resulted in an 8.500 score, the Ducks averaged 9.48 points per heat in the half.

“UMHB puts up a really good first half,” Susnara said. “That was why I said that (we needed to come out strong) in the beginning. I think in acro six, we had some nerves that got to us, but I think we were able to recover.”

Oregon had a 2.275-point lead in hand at the break — more than enough to convince the Cru that the door was still open.

Instead, the Ducks slammed it shut.

They opened the second half averaging 9.467 points per heat in toss, highlighted by dual scores of 9.500-or-higher in the 450 salto and open toss heats. UMHB, meanwhile, averaged 8.983 points across the three heats and fell behind by 3.725 points.

The tumbling event — normally one of Oregon’s best — didn’t hit the heights that it did at the end of the regular season, but was more than enough to secure the win. The Ducks scored no higher than 9.850  (in Riley Watson’s six-element pass) and had only three scores above 9.600. Last time out, against Baylor, every single heat was 9.600-plus.

UMHB, though, had multiple low scores that included a 7.050 in the quad pass and 6.450 in the trio. Weighed down by the group tumbling difficulties (duo, trio and quad averaged 7.030), the Cru trailed by 12.025 points with one event to run — a near-insurmountable deficit.

They’d find no joy in the team event, where the Ducks suffered multiple falls and had a shaky pyramid — they scored just 91.030 of a possible 109.230 points. The Cru put up just 84.380 of a possible 100.880.

“Our goals for this meet were to be really present, to be really calm, and to have a lot of fun,” Susnara said. “And I think (the athletes) did that for the most part. We’re just going to keep going though this weekend, and acting as if every meet is our last.”

Oregon moves on to the semifinal round, where it will face No. 3 Quinnipiac University. The Bobcats beat the No. 6 Iona Gaels earlier on Thursday. The semifinal is scheduled for Friday, at 2:30 PM Pacific Time.

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No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-2) begins its postseason run at the 2025 NCATA Championships with a quarterfinal matchup against No. 7 Mary Hardin-Baylor (7-3) on April 24. in Sioux Falls, SD. The Ducks put together a four-meet, regular-season winning streak that included a win over UMHB, but it was snapped on the final day by No. 1 Baylor. Since their last meeting, the Cru have won four of five, but faced only one Championships qualifier (Iona University, a loss). Oregon enters the Championships with its eye on a first title since 2014 — and a familiar matchup to kick it off.

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

Familiar faces

Oregon has faced UMHB once already in 2025, when the Cru traveled to Eugene on March 14. The Ducks won easily that day, 275.180-256.005, behind strong acro and pyramid events that combined lost just 1.65 of 60 possible points.

The new advantage could now be that the Ducks have seen the Cru before.

“I think that it’s very helpful that we’ve already faced them,” Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara said this week. “I think that we know what to expect. I think we can feel confident in the sense that we have already seen what they’re good at, maybe at what their weaknesses are and how we can capitalize on what our strengths are.”

UMHB is a strong first-half team, Susnara emphasized. The Cru scored 9.450 or higher in all but two of their first-half heats in their most recent meet, a Division III title-deciding win over Texas Lutheran University. It’s where the Ducks will need to step up.

That doesn’t mean Susnara’s confidence is shaken.

“They’re really clean, and they’re strong athletes,” she said. “And it’s no discredit to what UMHB is doing, but I think we would really have to have some big mistakes happen for us to not advance.”

On the road again — with a twist

Oregon will compete in its fourth consecutive meet away from Matthew Knight Arena against UMHB — the Ducks haven’t been home since their senior night victory over the Cru. Going away from home has multiple implications in acrobatics and tumbling; different judges can mean harsher deductions and different practice spaces.

At the NCATA Championships, five judges will watch each meet instead of the three that attend regular season competitions. That raises the bar even further and means that athletes have more eyes spotting potential deductions — lower scores should be expected.

Oregon senior Alexis Giardina thinks that what the Ducks took away from their road trip was an increase in self-belief.

“Usually we have practice pretty consistently leading up into these bigger meets, especially facing Quinnipiac,” Giardina said. “Then, going into Iona, we really didn’t have much practice throughout that week because our resources were a little bit limited during that trip. I think it really just taught us to trust in ourselves, in our skills and in our teammates.”

Practice will be limited during the postseason, too — Oregon will potentially compete meets on three consecutive days should it win out. It’s not an unfamiliar scenario for the Ducks, though — they’ve spent significant time on the road already — and that’s another advantage.

Event to watch

The first half will be where Oregon looks to jump into an early lead. Both Susnara and Giardina highlighted compulsory acro as an event they weren’t fully satisfied with in the loss at Baylor (Oregon scored 9.00 points in the heat, its joint-lowest of the season). Keep an eye on the early heats — not only for scores, but for the judges’ tendencies.

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

QUARTERFINALS:

1. Baylor vs. 8. Limestone (8:30 am PST)
2. Oregon vs. 7. UMHB (11:30 am PST)
3. Quinnipiac vs. 6. Iona (2:30 pm PST)
4. Augustana vs. 5. Fairmont State (5:00 pm PST)

SEMIFINALS:

Winner of 1/8 vs. 4/5 (2:30 pm PST on April 25)

Winner of 2/7 vs. 3/6 (5:00 pm PST on April 25)

CHAMPIONSHIP

Semifinal 1 winner vs Semifinal 2 winner (April 26. at 5:00 pm PST)

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The postseason is looming for No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling, and now, its path is set. The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association announced its final championship rankings on April 13. For the Ducks, it’s a familiar road ahead.

The path to a potential title would see them face a flurry of opponents whom they’ve largely seen and conquered in 2025. It’s a fast-paced battle, but one they’ve fought before. The title bout would likely see Oregon face No. 1 Baylor in a battle of heavyweights that has mostly swung the Bears’ way. A win there would mean the Ducks’ first title in over a decade.

Oregon (5-2) finished its regular season over two weeks ago, with a second loss to Baylor in Waco. The Ducks, though, rolled through the rest of their opponents, including No. 7 Mary Hardin-Baylor — their quarterfinal opponents.

The Cru (7-3) came to Matthew Knight Arena earlier this season, on the Ducks’ senior night. They were trounced as Oregon bounced back from a shaky win over Gannon University to close its home schedule in style with a 19.175-point home win. Since then, UMHB won the Division III Tournament, but hasn’t beaten a ranked team and lost narrowly to No. 6 Iona University in its home finale.

Should they advance, the Ducks would face another well-known foe: No. 3 Quinnipiac University, which Oregon beat 272.380-271.165 on the road, and Iona, which the Ducks trounced 270.630-257.370 in New York, battle in the opposite quarterfinal. 

Neither is a frightening matchup for Oregon, and although its win over Quinnipiac was its closest this year, a loss to either would be a surprising upset for the Ducks.

The real goal lies in the final. No. 1 Baylor (8-0) has not failed to win the NCATA Championship since head coach Felecia Mulkey took over in 2015. The Bears will have to advance past No. 8 Limestone University (12-1) in the quarterfinal, then either No. 4 Augustana University (6-0) or No. 5 Fairmont State University (10-1). Despite impressive records, none have beaten a top-three team — and aren’t likely to prove more than a speed bump to the reigning champions.

This is the battle that Oregon has been waiting for, over and over again. In the last five years, it’s been the same result every time. The 2025 regular season proved no different, and the Ducks dropped a home-and-home series with the Bears despite laying down two of their best efforts of the season.

In the regular season-end loss, they came close with their best score of the season, a 283.305 mark that included a perfect-10 in the open pyramid heat. It just wasn’t enough.

The Ducks are the last team to beat the Bears at all, in a 2021 regular season meet. They’re perhaps the only one with the all-around ability and experience to even think of dethroning the queens. 

The excellence is there. The Ducks are among the NCATA’s best in every event they need to win in, and they’re peaking at the right time. Even so, in order to claim a first national title in over a decade, it’ll take an effort that harkens back to that meet in 2021. The ultimate win would mean everything to a program that hasn’t done so since 2014.

The 2025 NCATA Championships will be streamed live on ESPN+. Oregon’s quarterfinal meet, against UMHB, is scheduled for April 24, at 11:30 AM Pacific Time.

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No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-2) locked in its seeding and matchup for the 2025 NCATA Championships on April 13. The Ducks — who lost twice this year to top-ranked Baylor but were otherwise unassailable — will face No. 7 Mary Hardin-Baylor in the quarterfinal round.

The Ducks faced the Cru (the 2025 Division III champion) earlier this season at Matthew Knight Arena — a comprehensive victory on Oregon’s senior night finished 275.180-256.005 in the Ducks’ favor. Mary-Hardin Baylor finished the season 7-3, but without a current top-eight win. It’s the same matchup it had in the quarterfinal round last year, where the Ducks advanced.

Oregon did not qualify for any individual event championships — the Ducks have 56 titles in their history, but will go without any this season. It rose from fourth in the preseason coaches’ poll to second overall, and can not faceNo. 1 Baylor until the championship round.

Their quarterfinal matchup with the Cru is set for April 24, at 11:30 AM Pacific Time in Sioux Falls, SD.

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What do you do when your best isn’t good enough?

No. 2 Oregon acrobatics and tumbling (5-2) had thrown down a season-high final score. The Ducks put up a perfect-10 in what was likely their premier event. They even scored a season-high to close in the team event.

It just wasn’t enough. The Ducks fell, once again, at the hands of No. 1 Baylor (9-0), 287.795-283.305. This time, it was in the Bears’ den, in Waco, TX, before an NCATA-record crowd.

Oregon put up dual 9.850 scores in the compulsory event and scored 37.45 points, but couldn’t take an early lead. Baylor managed two scores at or above 9.90 in the event, including a 9.95 in compulsory toss, to surge into a lead it’d never lose.

The acro event was one of legend. Oregon put up its best mark in the event since 2021 (the last time they beat Baylor). Freshman duo Cassidy Cu and Angelica Martin pushed their new five-element skill to unprecedented heights — a season-high 9.90. 

They were matched by teammates Bethany Glick and Bella Swarthout, whose seven-element skill earned the same score. Oregon head coach Taylor Susnara inserted the skill into Oregon’s meet in midseason and the two haven’t yet scored lower than 9.60 in four meets.

Once again, though, Baylor was better.

The Bears scored two perfect-10s in five and seven-element acro to earn 29.70 points in the event and hold onto their advantage. The lone imperfect score, a 9.70 in six-element acro, was still higher than Oregon’s 9.50 in the heat.

It only got wilder. Oregon scored its second perfect-10 of the season in the open pyramid — potentially the Ducks’ best event — to close the half. Paired with a 9.85 in the inversion heat and a 9.90 in the synchronized heat, Oregon had its highest score in the event (29.75) since 2022.

It didn’t matter. The Bears rose to unprecedented heights, scoring three-straight perfect-10s to earn a 30.00 score in the event. They’ve only done it once before…against Oregon in 2015. The Ducks still trailed by 1.70 points at the break. It seemed impossible.

Baylor raced out of the gate in the toss heat and won the event (it wouldn’t lose a single one), 29.40-29.75. Oregon managed a 9.95 in the open toss, but it wasn’t enough to gain any ground — instead, the Ducks’ grip was slipping.

It’s normally the tumbling event where Oregon, if trailing, has a chance to claw back into a lead. Usually, the Ducks have a hefty start value advantage — they’re one of very few programs who can set all six start values at a 10.0.

Baylor, of course, is another.

Oregon fueled its event with a 9.900 in the open pass and 9.925 in the six-element pass, but it wasn’t enough. Baylor scored 9.975 in its final pass to win its fifth-straight event.

But, for all of the event losses, Oregon had hung with the champs. It got to the team event, trailing by just 2.35 points. They just had to give them their best shot.

That’s what the Ducks did. Oregon threw its best team event since 2018 in the Bears’ face — a 99.430 score. It had to be enough.

It wasn’t. 

One last time, the Bears were just an inch better. They scored 101.57 to seal victory at home and down the Ducks for the second time in 2025.

The two best programs — undoubtedly — in the NCATA are on a collision course. Twice this season they’ve battled, and Baylor has twice emerged victorious. If they hold their top-two seeds and win out in this month’s NCATA Championship quarter-and-semifinals, they’ll find themselves set for a third battle.

This time, it was for pride and momentum. 

Next time, it’s for the championship.

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