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  • Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling wins 10th (!!!!!!!!!!) straight national title

    // Posted In Athletics, Honors

    Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling celebrates the championship as Coach Mulkey holds the trophy

    On Saturday, Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling won its tenth — TENTH!!!!!!!!! — straight national title! The win extends a run that dates back to 2015 (there was no championship in 2020 due to COVID). Over those 11 seasons, head coach Felecia Mulkey’s squad has gone a mind-boggling 110-2, including a current 50-meet winning streak.

    For context: The only longer NCAA D-1 championship streaks are in track and field, where the Arkansas men won 12 straight indoor titles from 1984-95, and the LSU women won 11 straight outdoor championships from 1987-97. (To be clear, Baylor’s current run is an NCATA streak, not an NCAA streak, because acrobatics and tumbling is currently classified as an NCAA Emerging Sport while it works its way toward full-fledged NCAA status.)

    Not surprisingly, Baylor also cleaned up when it came to individual honors, led by NCATA Athlete of the Year Payton Washington. Washington is the ninth Bear since 2015 to be named national A&T athlete of the year — an incredible accomplishment for any student-athlete, but especially one who’s been through all that Washington has endured.

    Bears also won NCATA Specialist of the Year (Jordan Gruendler), Freshman of the Year (Leavy McDonald), and Coach of the Year (Mulkey). Washington, Gruendler, McDonald and Emily Bott were also named All-Americans, while Gruendler added All-Academic honors, for good measure.

    What carries a team at this level, when you’ve won so many years in a row?

    “I really think it’s the senior leadership,” Mulkey told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “This group of kiddos, they’ve been through a lot since they’ve been here. They’ve seen a lot. And I think every class has. But they stormed within themselves, they’ve come out stronger on the other end. They really decided this year that it’s team first, it’s we before me. And they led this team like that.”

    The win is Baylor Athletics’ 16th national championship overall. In addition to A&T’s 10 wins, Baylor has also won team national titles in men’s basketball (2021), women’s basketball (2005, 2012 & 2019), men’s tennis (2004) and equestrian (2012).

    Sic ’em, Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling!