Seeded seventh, the Fairmont State University Acrobatics & Tumbling Team competes against No. 2 seed Hawaii Pacific at today’s 2015 National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association National Championship preliminaries at FSU’s Joe Retton Arena.

 

Hawaii Pacific beat FSU during the regular season when the Falcons traveled to Honolulu just last month, but having the home gym advantage could play a role in tonight’s competition having a reversed outcome, said FSU Coach and Bridgeport resident, Kristi Kiefer.

 

“They travel across the country and have a six-hour time change like we did when we traveled there,” she said. “They’re good, but they are definitely beatable, but we know that we have to be on our A-game.”

 

In all, eight teams are vying for the national title this weekend. Teams were eligible based on regular season wins and losses, as well as the strength of their schedules, Kiefer said.  Winners of today’s preliminaries will advance to semifinals tomorrow and finals will be held Saturday night.

 

FSU competes with Hawaii Pacific at 8:15 p.m. today. Yesterday afternoon, Baylor University collected eight of the 15 individual event national titles to kick-off the 2015 National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association National Championship.

 

This year marks the sport’s fifth national championship and the first held at FSU. In the past, they have been hosted by Oregon, Baylor, Quinnipiac and Azusa Pacific. Also a member of the NCATA and active in competition over the past five years is Maryland. 

 

“We’re one of the founding schools and I’ve been coaching it since its inception,” Kiefer said.

 

It seemed like the ideal course of action to take.

 

“We’ve always had a very strong competitive cheer program here,” said Kiefer, who began coaching the competitive FSU cheer team in 1995, the year they earned their first national championship. “It’s been a legacy that our area had strong female athletes who needed a sport that will help them use those skills. It’s a strong area for girls who have been tumbling from an early age and this allows them to take it to the collegiate level.”

 

Acrobats and tumbling is a sport which molded into just what was needed, Kiefer said.

 

“It has some pieces of competitive cheering, but so many other gymnastics-oriented pieces,” she said.

 

Competitive events start with compulsory – during which each team competes the same pre-determined set of skills including toss, acro, pyramid and tumbling heats and can score up to a perfect 10. Then there are separate events in acro skills, pyramids, tosses and tumbling, which includes single passes and synchronized tumbling. The final event is a team event, during which student athletes perform synchronized choreographed skills during a routine set to music.

 

When putting together her team, Kiefer said she places a heavy emphasis on tumbling.

 

“I really look for athletes that have at least a full twist and, of course, advanced tumbling skills otherwise,” she said. “But other components in our sport include a lot of hand balances done on top of each other, pyramids and tosses. So I look for physical makeup of where girls will fit. It’s like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.”

Strength and conditioning is a very vital component of training, Kiefer said.

 

Kiefer if also a full-time professor at FSU, teaching tumbling, as well as elementary physical education and early psycho motor development. 

 

Editor's Note: Above are photos of the FSU tumbling and acrobat team. Pictured right is Kiefer with one of her team members.