Kutztown, PA. – With a top four spot in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) standings on the line, the Wheeling University Acrobatics & Tumbling team headed to Kutztown State on Saturday. It all came down to the team event, but in the end the Cardinals dropped a close battle to the Golden Bears 202.200-185.360. It was their smallest margin of defeat so far this 2026 season, but the team added another event win to lead the way.

That event win would come in the second half as the Tumblers took gold over the Golden Bears. It began with the team portion of the event as the Cardinals won two of the first three heats of the event. Laicey Angelle and Courtney Hurst would start the day in the Duo Pass, and put up a score of 6.800 off a start value of 8.350. it was enough to take down Kutztown by 0.400 points and set the stage for the trio pass with Gianna Bjorn, Gabriella Jantz, and Savannah Poulos taking the mat. The trip finished with a score of 7.600 on a start value of 8.75, and once again beat Kutztown. The quad pass would be the final team heat of the tumbling event and the Cardinals sent Shannon Farrow, Kaicey Angelle, Kallysta Hyduke, and Destany Groves to the mat. They would round out the team portion of the event with a score of 4.700 to round out the team portion of the event.

As they moved to the individual passes, with the Cardinals winning each of the final three heats to claim the event victory. It was the usual starting lineup for the Cardinals, with Bjorn getting things started in the Aerial Pass. She would start things strong with her best showing of the season, putting up an 8.100 off a start value of 8.600. She was followed up by Gabriella Jantz in the Six-Element Pass and the sophomore continued her string of 9.00+ performances. She would put up a score of 9.175 to take down her competitor by just . 025 points. Rounding out the individual portion of the event was Laicey Angelle, who resumed her spot in the Open Pass. She would just miss hitting the 9.00 mark, PO putting up an 8.475 to earn the Cardinals their fifth year win. Wheeling would take the event title 44.850-41.850, setting up a showdown in the team event.

The Cardinals would be trailing 148.150-139.800 and a good showing in the team would put the Cardinals on top. However, both teams would have their struggles in the final event, with Kurtztown scoring 54.050 on a start value of 93.59, while Wheeling scored 45.560 on a start value of 92.46. Wheeling would end up dropping their third conference game of the season, and were unable to leapfrog into the top four of the conference. Wheeling's next closest event score would come in the Compulsory Event to start the night. They would fall to the Golden Bears 30.40-28.35. Their top heat of the event would come in the Pyramid, where the Cardinals secured a score of 8.15 off the 10.00 start value. It was one of three scores of 7.00 or higher for the Cardinals on the event, with the other two coming in the Toss and Acro heats. The Cardinals started the event with a 7.25 in the Acro, and followed that up two events later with a 7.85 in the Toss event.

As the night went on, the Cardinals continued to battle, starting the Acro event with the 5-Element. The Cardinals would put together a score of 8.45 to start the event and would add one more 7.00+ score to round things out. It would come in the seven-element acro and the Cardinals scored a 7.20 off a start value of 9.30. They would score a total of 20.20 in the event and continued with two more 8.00+ scores in the pyramid event. Their highest score was in the Open Pyramid, where the Cardinals put up an 8.70 off a start value of 10.00. Their other 8.00+ score came in the Inversion Pyramid, where they scored an 8.30 off a start value of 9.70. The final event of the day would be Toss, with the Cardinals once again saving their best score for last. It would come in the Open Toss when they finished out with an 8.15 on a start value of 9.40.