HONOLULU, Hawaii – Acrobatics and Tumbling traveled more than 2,500 miles to pick up their first win of 2026, outlasting 13th-ranked Hawai'i Pacific 263.5-261.265 Saturday evening in the Shark Tank.

How It Happened: The 10th-ranked Cougars found themselves operating from slightly behind early on, as despite an outstanding 9.90 in the compulsory toss heat, they trailed the Sharks 37.75-37.30.  They began to make up that ground in the acro event, where both the 5- and 7-element heats earned scores of 9.70, enabling the Cougars to shave off two-thirds of their deficit heading into the pyramid event.  The Sharks were able to win two of the three pyramid heats, however, to maintain a lead of three-tenths of a point at halftime.

The second half saw both teams trade the lead thanks to a couple of major errors.  The Cougars stormed into the lead on a clean 450 salto toss that earned 9.35 to the Sharks' 7.75.  Hawai'i Pacific cut into that gap with a 9.75 in the open toss, but that still put Azusa Pacific ahead for the first time in the match, 122.25-121.85.

The Cougars won three of the six tumbling heats, but some issues of their own in the 6-element pass allowed the Sharks to regain the lead of just under a point heading into the team event.  But perhaps having had one meet under their belts worked in the Cougars' favor this evening, as they pulled out a three-point win in the team event, 88.9-85.84 to pull off the victory.  The Cougars have beaten Hawai'i Pacific 14 consecutive times in a streak that goes back to the 2017 national quarterfinals, and lead the all-time series 18-4.

Up Next: The Cougars (1-1) will head east in the first week of March for two more road meets.  Up first will be fellow founding NCATA member Fairmont State on Monday, March 2nd.  The teams will hit the mats in West Virginia at 6:00 p.m. Eastern (3:00 p.m. Pacific).