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Azusa Pacific’s clutch team event resulted in a crucial win in the program’s history. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith

On Monday, April 7, the Azusa Pacific acrobatics and tumbling team snapped the University of Oregon Division I program’s 31-meet winning streak that stretched across four seasons by beating the Ducks with a final score of 283.40-282.48. APU’s final score topped the previous Cougar season-high by 2.30 points.

The Cougars handed the Ducks their first-ever loss in tumbling on Monday, March 10, but lost the tri-meet (280.575-278.36) to Oregon. But APU came back almost one month later to defeat the Ducks in a meet that went down to the wire.

Azusa Pacific led 97.35-96.75 at halftime. In the opening compulsory event, the Cougars bested the Ducks 38.95-38.90. Oregon held the advantage in the acro (9.70-9.45) and pyramid (10.00-9.95) heats, but Azusa Pacific answered and took advantage of the Ducks’ early mistakes in the toss (9.90-9.65) and tumbling (9.65-9.55) heats.

After tying in the acro event at 28.75 points, the Cougars dominated in the pyramid event, topping the Ducks by .55 points (29.65-29.10).

Oregon came out of the halftime break pushing toward a comeback. The team took two of three heats in the toss event (29.10-28.75). Of the six tumbling passes, they won only the quad pass, but by a significant margin (9.550-9.250).

Holding onto a 184.450-184.325 lead, the Cougars needed a strong performance in the team event to emerge victorious. They topped the Ducks by .80 points for the monumental win.

Azusa Pacific competes again on Saturday, April 12 against the Baylor Bears in Waco, Texas.