By: Chad Hensley
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The Urbana University Acrobatics & Tumbling team used a gutsy second-half performance to leapfrog the homestanding West Virginia Wesleyan College for a split at the conclusion of Saturday afternoon's tri-meet that also saw nationally-ranked Fairmont State competing.
Even after scoring a season-high 88.10 at the half, Urbana found itself trailing Wesleyan (0-3) by less than a point, but the Blue Knights (3-1) also scored a season-high in the second half with 163.020 points to edge out Wesleyan by a final score of 251.120 to 247.935.
Fairmont State (3-0) took two wins with a 266.510 overall score to live up to the billing of the seventh-ranked team in the latest NCATA national poll. The Fighting Falcons even tallied two perfect scores in the five-element and six-element Acro heats
Urbana started out the first half strong with a 34.40 in the Compulsory event. The Blue Knights would be outscored by Wesleyan in the Acro (26.95-26.30) and Pyramid (27.55-27.40) events.
Coach Courtney Stack's crew would also see themselves outscored by Wesleyan in the Toss (25.95-25.80) and Tumbling (49.625-49.350) events but turned on the afterburner and never looked back in the Team event.
The Blue Knights concluded the tri-meet with an 87.87 score, which was enough to overcome the deficit as the Bobcats tallied just a 83.51 for the final totals.
UP NEXT: Urbana will return to the Grimes Center on Sunday, March 1 to host Adrian College (Mich.) in a non-conference meet. The Blue Knights and Bulldogs will get their performances underway beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
