FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- Azusa Pacific won five out of six tumbling heats and finished strong in the team event to pull away late for its first acrobatics & tumbling win of the 2017 season. The Cougars won four of the six events to score 272.180 points while Fairmont State scored 266.770 points.

Tumbling was one of three events Azusa Pacific won by a margin greater than a full point, and the Cougars turned a close meet through four events into a comfortable 5.41-point margin of victory. Ashleigh Pitts scored a 9.85 on the open tumbling solo heat, and Heather Hovander scored 9.80 on the aerial tumbling solo heat, winning those two heats by a combined 1.45 points to account for over a quarter of the team's final margin of victory.

In tumbling, the Cougars won four of the six heats by at least a half-point, with Pitts and Hovander creating the greatest separation to propel Azusa Pacific to a lead of 3.3 points heading into the team event. The Cougars (97.23 points) remained unbeaten in the team event this year, winning the event by 2.11 points as Fairmont State scored 95.12.

With the win, Azusa Pacific is now 1-2 on the season, while Fairmont State also carries a 1-2 record. The Cougars return home to take on Concordia (Wis.) on Wednesday, March 15, before wrapping up the regular season in early April against Oregon (April 8) and Baylor (April 11). Azusa Pacific will also serve as the host of the 2017 National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA) National Championships.

Azusa Pacific won the compulsory event by 1.30 points, scoring 36.00, but the teams alternated event victories until the Cougars pulled away in tumbling. Fairmont State cut Azusa Pacific's early lead in half, scoring 29.00 points in the acro event to the Cougars' 28.35. In the next two events, the teams posted nearly identical scores, giving Azusa Pacific a lead of just seven-tenths of a point heading into tumbling.