WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The No. 15 ranked West Liberty University acrobatics & tumbling team improved its scores in all six events from the season opener, but fell to No. 2 Gannon, 265.480-247.165, in Tuesday’s home opening meet.
The Hilltoppers (0-2) won its first heat of the season just before halftime with a 9.80 in the open pyramid. Kayla Gandy was on top of the open pyramid with Abbey Swinderman at mid, Chloe Palmer on the ground in a backbend, then Paige McGlothlin handled the tossing and catching.
Gannon (1-1) got off to an early lead with high scores in the first nine heats, which featured wins of 37.45-35.20 in the compulsory event and 27.70-25.50 in the acro event along with a pair of strong opening heats in the pyramid event. The Golden Knights had the high score of the night in the inversion pyramid with a near perfect score, 9.95.
For the second meet of the season, West Liberty posted 9’s in all three pyramid heats. The Black and Gold also added a 9.60 in the pyramid compulsory heat, which featured Gandy on the top right and Avery Ray on the top left.
The Golden Knights took control of the close contest with a 29.20-24.90 edge in the toss heat, where they charted scores of 9.80, 9.65, and 9.75.
The Hilltoppers battled back and scored 50.175 in the tumbling event behind a 9.150 from Gandy in the aerial pass. West Liberty outscored the Golden Knights in both the duo pass and trio pass off strong performances from Gandy and Gillian Hartz in the duo (8.050), then Savana Ricnchetti, Bella Paternoster, and Audrey Prater in the trio (8.000). GU was able to answer with 9’s in each of the final three heats to take the tumbling event by just over one point.
The meet closed out with an 82.79 in the team event for the Black and Gold to a 90.18 for Gannon.
The Hilltoppers only suffered 4.88 more deductions than the Golden Knights, but Gannon had a start value of 10 on all but three events and already built in a near seven-point edge in the team event start value.
WLU improved nearly three points from the first meet of the season in both the compulsory (35.20) and tumbling (50.175) events.
West Liberty will be back on the home mat on Sunday taking on Glenville State kicking off conference action. Start time is set for 2 pm inside the ASRC.
Follow the Hilltoppers all season online at HilltopperSports.com, as well as on Twitter (@WLU_AcroTumb, @WLathletics), Instagram (@wlu_acrotumb, @wlu_athletics), and Facebook. West Liberty University will be hosting the NCATA National Championships on April 27-30 inside the ASRC. Ticketing and more information will be available soon. Follow the NCATA online at thencata.org or on social media @thencata for all the latest information.
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