WACO, Texas — The No. 7 Hawai'i Pacific University Acrobatics and Tumbling team finalized their 2019 season with a loss to No. 2 Oregon in the quarterfinals of the 2019 National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Assocation National Championships on Thursday at Baylor's Ferrell Center.
                                                                                                                                                      
The Sharks (1-6) put up some impressive heats in the first half of the meet, but the Ducks (7-2) towered over HPU in five of the six events winning the meet 273.500-262.285.
 
HPU topped Oregon in the Acro Event 29.10-28.95 with senior Ashley Thomas of Springfield, Ore./Thurston, senior Kiana Roosevelt of Phoenix, Ariz./Xavier College Prep, and senior Joely Smith of Wilmington, N.C./Ashley passing over the Ducks with a 9.80 in the 5-element heat. Both Thomas and Roosevelt along with senior Hannah Riker of Rapid City, S. D./Stevens posted the meet high score of 9.85 in the 7-element heat.
 
The Sharks continued strong into the Pyramid Event for a score of 28.625, but dropped to UO who posted a score of 29.325.
 
Going in to halftime, HPU was down 94.05-95.80, a reasonable 1.75 difference.
 
In the Toss event, the Ducks extended their lead over HPU scoring 28.650 compared to the Shark's 27.20.
 
UO ran away with it in the Tumbling Event as the Sharks fell in all six heats and saw a difference of almost 5 points from the Ducks.
 
The final HPU Team Event was one of their best of the season, but they still couldn't catch up to UO getting outscored 93.85-90.76.


This completed the final team competition of the year, but some of the Sharks qualified for the Individual Event Finals that will be held Saturday at the Ferrell Center starting at 6:00 a.m. HST (11 a.m. CDT).