Morgan State University made history on Saturday as they hosted their first-ever acrobatics and tumbling meet at Hill Field House. The Lady Bears faced off against the third-ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats, and despite losing the meet, they impressed the crowd with their skills and spirit.
Acrobatics and tumbling is a sport that combines elements of gymnastics, cheerleading, and dance, and consists of six events: Compulsory, Acro, Pyramid, Toss, Tumbling, and Team.
Morgan State is the first Division I Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to have an acrobatics and tumbling team, and they joined the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) in 2023.
The Lady Bears, coached by Regina Smith, performed well in their debut, scoring 220.770 points, while the Bobcats scored 262.580 points. Morgan showed their strength in the Pyramid event, where they scored 28.750 points, the highest among all the events.
They also had some standout performances in the Tumbling event, where freshman Tehya Purifoy scored 8.800 points in the aerial pass, and sophomore Jada Johnson scored 9.100 points in the six-element pass.
Coach Smith said that she was very proud of her team and how they performed in their inaugural meet.
“I’m very excited about what we performed and competed today. We had some last-minute changes less than 24 hours ago. So being able to overcome the adversity and the challenges that we faced going into this meeting, I think they did extremely well for their inaugural meet.”
Smith also said that she had a big vision for the future of the program, and that she wanted to make Morgan State a powerhouse in the sport.
“We’re just in the beginning of our stages and I have a big dream. The students believe that dream and we’re coming for it. So yeah, there might be some historic programs that have been on top, but we’re coming to take their place.”
The Lady Bears will have their next meet on Monday, February 19th, when they host Iona University at Hill Field House at 6:00 p.m.
