West Liberty, W. Va. - During the preseason, Head Coach Alexis Kelly was most excited about her team's Pyramid event, highlighting the new skills the team worked on to get it to the next level. On Monday, all that hard work paid off as the Cardinals picked up their first heat win of the season in what was a 226.355-198.085 loss to West Liberty. It came in the first heat of the event, as the Cardinals added 7.525 points to their team score from the first meet of the season.
The Heat win would come in the Inversion Pyramid, where the team competed with a start value of 9.70. Wheeling would lose just .600 points off the start value score, putting up a 9.100 to start the event. They would end up defeating West Liberty's Inversion Pyramid by .600 points, picking up a 9.100-8.500 victory. It was the first of two 9.00+ scores for the Cardinals in the event, with the other coming in Heat 3, the Open Pyramid. The event saw the Cardinals have their highest start value for a non-compulsory event, starting at 10.00, and they responded with another strong showing. They would put up a 9.350, falling just 0.350 points shy of West Liberty's 9.700. Both 9.00+ performances set a program record for their respective heats, and the Cardinals would round out the event strong in the Synchronized Heat. They would score an 8.500 out of a start value of 9.50, bringing their point total for the event to 26.95.
Their second-highest scoring event of the night would come in Tumbling, where the Cardinals scored a 42.775 out of a start value of 50.70 points. Wheeling would pick up their second heat win of the day, coming in the trio pass, where Gabriella Jantz, Gianna Bjorn, and Savnnah Poulos competing. The trio would put together a score of 7.400, out of a start value of 8.75, beating West Liberty's Trio Pass score of 6.700. The highest scoring heat would be provided by freshman Laciey Angelle, who once again competed in the Open Pass. The freshman would score 8.00+ points for the second event in a row. She would finish with a score of 8.425 on a start value of 8.90 and was just .100 shy of West Liberty. Jantz and Bjorn would compete in the 6-Element Pass and the Aerial Pass to round out the individual portion of the event. Jantz would put up a score of 7.925, out of a start value of 8.85, while Bjorn added a 7.875, out of a start value of 8.60.
The night began with the Compulsory event, where the Cardinals bounced back from a slow start after heat one. They would put up scores of 8.400 and 8.550 respectively in the Pyramid Heat and Toss Heat to bring their point total to 22.65. They would end the event with a heat score of 3.700 in the Tumbling Heat, bringing the score to 33.40-26.35 after one event. The Acro event would see the Cardinals start to turn things around when they got to the 7-Element Acro. Wheeling would put together scores of 5.850 and 5.400 in the 5-Element and 6-Element, before breaking out in the 7-Element Acro. Wheeling put up a score of 7.300, on a start value of 9.20, and picked up their first official Heat win of the day. That would propel them into the strong Pyramid event, and at halftime, the score sat at 82.25-71.85 in favor of the Hilltoppers.
Coming off the break, the Cardinals were able to keep the momentum going, scoring 7.000 or better in each of the three heats of the toss Event. Their highest score came in the Open Toss, where they scored a 7.800, out of a start value of 9.00. Their fourth and final event win would come in the Synchronized Heat, where Wheeling defeated West Liberty 7.250-6.100 They rounded out the event with a 7.600 in the 450 Salto, and it was enough to pick up the overall event win with a score of 22.65 compared to a 21.90 mark for the Hilltoppers. The final event of the day would be the team event, where Wheeling put up a 60.810 out of a start value of 92.55. It was a 2.7 point drop from their season opener as they rounded out the night. In total, the cardinals scored 198.085 out of a start value of 266.600, scoring 74.3% of their total possible points.
The Wheeling University Acrobatics & Tumbling team returns to action on Saturday, February 22nd, when they compete at the Frostburg State Tri-Meet with first events beginning at 2 PM.
