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<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – April 23, 2021</span></b><u><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">No. 2 A&T Secures Sixth-Straight National Title<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The Bears defeated the No. 1 Azusa Pacific 279.790-276.465 on Friday night<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Media Link:
<a href="https://baylorbea.rs/3epasxq">https://baylorbea.rs/3epasxq</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">For more information contact:</span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> 919-247-7585, <u>Zach_Rhodes@baylor.edu</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">WACO, Texas —
</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team won its sixth-straight national championship on Friday night at the Ferrell Center after defeating No. 1 Azusa Pacific 279.790-276.465 in the 2021
NCATA National Championship Final. The Bears (6-1) have won every championship since head coach Felecia Mulkey joined the program, as she has now won her 10<sup>th</sup> career title as a head coach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">To begin the night, Baylor scraped by in the compulsory event, outscoring Azusa 38.825-38.400. BU took the acro event
29.750-29.075 after earning scores of 9.975, 9.850, and 9.925.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">In the pyramid event, the Bears outscored the Cougars 29.500-29.450 as this was the closest margin of victory of the meet.
Going into halftime, Baylor was ahead 98.075-96.925.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">After the break, Baylor took the toss event 28.975-28.675 and then in tumbling, BU outscored Azusa Pacific 57.950-57.575.
Junior Mercy Seay earned a 9.950 in her six-element pass and sophomore Tori Harris earned a 9.800 in her open pass.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Baylor prevailed in the team event, scoring a 94.790, while Azusa Pacific scored a 93.290, as the Bears secured the national
championship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">QUOTE FROM COACH MULKEY</span></b><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"><br>
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">“I just think they’re unshakeable. Azusa Pacific was awesome and they just kept bringing it and kept bringing it. These guys were eerily calm before the meet. I asked them, ‘Is this eerily
calm? What am I seeing here?’ And they were just ready to go. I couldn’t be more proud of them, they came in and cleaned some things up, even from yesterday. Our team event wasn’t as great as we wanted it to be today, but it was enough. They’re a team and
they’re just unshakeable. It doesn’t matter who’s standing across the mat, they’re just going to go out and execute the way they need to execute.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">For updates on the program, follow @BaylorAcroTumb on Twitter and Instagram and @BaylorAcrobaticsandTumbling on Facebook.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:black">Zach Rhodes</span></b><span style="color:black"> | Associate Director of Athletics Communications<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Department of Athletics | Baylor University<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">C: 919-247-7585 | O: 254-710-3784<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://baylorbears.com/" title="http://baylorbears.com/"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="160" height="44" style="width:1.6666in;height:.4583in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D73896.3234F420" alt="signature_697736208"></span></a><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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