Baylor A&T Sweeps NCATA Major Athletic Awards

[Allen, Madelon]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – April 25, 2023

Baylor A&T Sweeps NCATA Major Athletic Awards
Bears garner top athletic accolades ahead of Championships

For more information contact: Madelon Allen; 254-252-7168, madelon_allen at baylor.edu<mailto:madelon_allen at baylor.edu>

WACO, Texas – The Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling team swept the postseason major awards from the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA), the organization released Tuesday.

Kamryn Kitchens was named NCATA Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year, Jordan Gruendler the NCATA Specialist of the Year, and Gianna Cameron the NCATA Freshman of the Year.

Senior top and tumbler Kitchens earned four Athlete of the Week awards from the organization in the regular season, garnering them for her prowess in all aspects of the sport. The Kennesaw, Ga., native competed in an average of 10 heats a meet that scored an average of 9.60 or higher, competing in at least one heat per event. With Kitchens on the mat, BU averaged a 9.89 in the compulsory toss and synchronized pyramid, while she averaged a 9.935 in the individual aerial tumbling pass in five meets this season. In addition, she scored a perfect 10 in the six-element tumbling pass, the first time a Bear had done so in that heat since 2017. She also helped the Bears to perfect 10 scores in a compulsory toss and synchronized pyramid as a top. Kitchens is now a two-time NCATA All-American and three-time NCATA All-Academic selection.

Kitchens is the fifth different Baylor athlete to earn the honor, garnering BU’s seventh award all-time.

A sophomore top, Gruendler earned the Specialist of the Week accolade four times this season, all for the Pyramid event. She and the Bears earned a combined five perfect scores across the inversion and open pyramid heats. The San Antonio, Texas, native is the only top in the country to execute an extended straddle press to handstand on a single mid-level base during open pyramid. Baylor averages a 9.93 in the open pyramid with one perfect 10.0 and four scores of 9.95. In the inversion pyramid, Gruendler and BU average a 9.96 with four perfect 10.0 scores and three 9.95 scores. She continues to raise the bar in the sport by incorporating new elements from her artistic gymnastics background that are submitted to the NCATA Scoring Committee.

Gruendler is the fourth different Bear to garner the accolade, earning the fourth award all-time.

Cameron, a native of South Charleston, Ohio, earned the award from her performance as a base and tumbler for the Bears. She competed in eight different heats for BU this season, helping the Bears to an average score of 9.89 in the compulsory toss. Cameron competed in all three toss heats for Baylor, helping the Bears average a 9.68 in three appearances in the open toss heat, and a 9.53 in three appearances in the 450 salto toss heat. She competed six times in the synchronized pyramid, helping Baylor to a season average of 9.48. Cameron was also a tumbler for the Bears in compulsory tumbling, trio tumbling and quad tumbling passes. With her on the mat in the combined passes, the Bears averaged a 9.263 out of a possible 9.800.

Cameron marks just the third Bear to earn the accolade.

The major awards follow the announcement of four BU A&T student-athletes being named NCATA All-America, one named All-Academic and 25 being named to the Academic Honor Roll on Monday.

West Liberty University is serving as the host of the 2023 NCATA Championships, located in West Liberty, West Virginia. The No. 1-seeded Bears (8-0) are slated to face No. 8 seed Fairmont State (9-2) in the quarterfinals, taking place on Thursday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m. CT at the ASRC and streamed on ESPN+.

Tickets for the Championships are on sale here<https://wlu.hometownticketing.com/embed/all> and the official bracket can be found here<https://baylorbears.com/documents/2023/4/17/23_NCATA_Bracket.pdf>.

To stay up to date all year long on all things Baylor acrobatics & tumbling, follow the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @BaylorAcroTumb.


- BaylorBears<http://www.baylorbears/>.com -

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Madelon Allen | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (VB, MTEN, A&T)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 254-252-7168

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