Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling’s 5th straight national title tops an impressive BU weekend

April 29, 2019 // Posted In Athletics, Honors

Baylor acrobatics and tumbling student-athletes hug after winning the national championship

The New York Yankees once won five straight World Series (1949-53). UCLA men’s basketball claimed seven straight NCAA titles between 1967-73, and the Boston Celtics won an incredible eight straight NBA championships from 1959-66.

In similar fashion, Baylor’s acrobatics & tumbling team is putting together its own run of dominance. The Bears won their fifth consecutive national title Saturday night in front of a home crowd at the Ferrell Center — the team’s fourth undefeated season in the last five years.

For Baylor A&T, the win over Oregon Saturday night capped off a half-decade of dominance that began in 2015 when head coach Felecia Mulkey came to Baylor from Oregon. This year’s squad roared through the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record to earn the No. 1 national seed at the NCATA National Championships. In the national quarterfinals, Baylor defeated 8th-seeded Gannon before bouncing No. 4 Quinnipiac in the national semis. The Bears and Ducks continued their sport-defining rivalry in the championship, performing neck-and-neck until the tumbling event, when Baylor pulled away.

The championship was Baylor’s second national title in the month of April, following the Lady Bears’ basketball title, and capped off an impressive weekend for Baylor Athletics:

Baylor wide receiver Jalen Hurd was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 2019 NFL draft, and four of his teammates will also get the chance to continue their football careers at the next level after signing free agent contracts this weekend: Blake Blackmar (Chicago Bears), Ira Lewis (Houston Texans), Greg Roberts (Green Bay Packers) and Derrek Thomas (Seattle Seahawks).
No. 18-ranked Baylor baseball swept TCU in Fort Worth in dominating fashion, winning the three-game set by a combined score of 33-6 to take over first place in the Big 12.
Baylor track & field swept the 4×400-meter relays at the National Relay Championships in Arkansas, with both the men and women bringing home gold.
In celebration of their national title, the Lady Bears got to visit our nation’s capital, where they toured multiple memorials and museums, met with Congressional delegates in the Capitol, and were honored by the President of the United States in the White House.

Sic ’em, Bears!