BUFFALO, N.Y. – Coming off its only loss of the season, Azusa Pacific refocused, redoubled its efforts, and got back into the win column, taking down Buffalo State in their first-ever meet in New York by a score of 263.525-123.350 Thursday afternoon inside the BSU Sports Arena.
How It Happened: The Cougars were facing a first-year program hosting only their second-ever meet, and jumped out to a large lead in the compulsory event, breaking 9.4 in two of the four heats and leading by a score of 36.35-20.5 after the event. The next two events were about regaining form after issues against Gannon on Tuesday, and Azusa Pacific did just that, with all three acro heats earning scores nine points or higher, and the open pyramid team of
Kamryn Buhl,
Shaelyn Marlborough,
Gabby Hornung,
Lily Richardson, and
Kendall Sullivan rebounding strongly from Tuesday's meet, earning a score of 9.40.
All three Cougar pyramid heats won by more than a point over their Bengal counterparts, helping the Cougars stretch their lead through three events to an even 26 points, at 91.45-65-45. That pattern would repeat itself in the toss heat, with the Cougars winning each heat by over a point, highlighted by a 9.50 by the open toss squad consisting of
Maria Hurst,
Abbigale Abramson,
Jenna Moisio,
Olivia Hamer, and Buhl. These results stretched the lead to more than 30 points.
Being a new program with a particularly small roster, Buffalo State did not compete in a few of the heats, notably the quad tumbling pass and the team event. But the Cougars kept plugging away, putting up over 53 points in the tumbling event with
Allee Kooch earning a 9.3 on the aerial pass while
Sarah Lang received a 9.475 on the open pass to press their lead to nearly 50 points by the end of the event. Azusa Pacific won all 17 heats where both teams competed on the day, and were able to put forth a 90.65 in the team event, again improving from their marks from two days earlier.
Up Next: Having completed the road portion of its schedule, fifth-ranked Azusa Pacific (3-1) now heads home for its final two meets of the season, starting with a showdown next Wednesday, March 13, against third-ranked Quinnipiac. Meet time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
