EUGENE, OR (March 16, 2014) – The Hawai'i Pacific Acrobatics and Tumbling Team recorded its first ever win during a tri-meet in front of 1,342 fans on Saturday in Oregon. HPU (1-3) defeated Alderson Broaddus (2-4) 270.72 to 258.38, the host Ducks (5-0) earned two victories with a score of 283.10.

HPU dominated Alderson Broaddus, winning five of the six events in the matchup between the first year programs. Oregon, the three-time defending national champion, stretched it win streak to 26 meets by winning 19 of 20 heats.

It was HPU's toss event heat three team of Malyssa Barbasa, Somer Hancock, Shawna Uehara, Melanie Hew, and Dani Guerin that was perfect and beat Oregon with a score of 9.8. HPU's start value was lower than both of the other teams, but the flawless execution earned the victory.  

"The meet today was such a fun experience for our team. I am incredibly proud of our team bringing in the first win of the season. The team continues to get better at every single meet and I cannot wait for us to hit our peak," said Head Coach Keenyn Won.   

It was HPU's best performance in its short history. HPU's score of 270.72 was 15.265 points better than the Sea Warriors' opening performance against Azusa Pacific and a 4.18 point improvement on last week against Quinnipiac. Had HPU scored a 270.72 on those nights, it would have defeated APU and lost to QU by .72 points.

"We cleaned up a lot of errors that were getting us minor deductions," said Won, an Oregon alum.

It was in interesting day for HPU's leading lady, she was not only coaching against her former school, coach and some of her teammates at Oregon, but Jacqueline Svadeba (Alderson Broaddus' Head Coach) was also a teammate of Won's.

"We are excited and fired up for our match up with APU and Baylor on Tuesday. As long as we execute I have no doubt in my mind that we can pull out two more wins," said Won.

HPU now travels to Azusa, CA for Tuesday's tri-meet with Baylor and the host Cougars.  

Meet Stats