The third set of National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA) National Championship Rankings saw just two changes on Wednesday afternoon following another week of NCATA action around the country.
This year’s championship will be hosted by the University of Oregon at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. The eight-team, single-elimination tournament will begin on Thursday, April 28 with four quarterfinal matchups. The semifinals are set for Friday evening, while the National Championship meet will be contested on Saturday evening. National individual event finals are scheduled for Saturday morning. Official meet times will be unveiled Monday (April 11), along with the announcement of the 2022 tournament bracket.
The six-time defending national champion Baylor Bears remained at No. 1 in this week’s rankings with a 7-0 record. The Bears picked up a home win over nationally-ranked Hawaii Pacific this week and will wrap up the regular season against the University of Oregon on Sunday in Eugene. APU remained at No. 2 in this week’s rankings and have wrapped up their season with a 5-1 overall record.
Gannon is at No. 3 for the third-consecutive week after picking up a road win over first-year program Kutztown on Saturday – improving to 7-1 on the year. Quinnipiac moved up one spot following its win over the University of Oregon this weekend. Gannon and Quinnipiac will meet in a 3 vs. 4 matchup on Saturday in Erie. The Knights won the first meeting between the programs back in early February – a 266.955-262.235 Gannon win in Connecticut. Oregon rounds out the top 5 this week, setting up Sunday’s Top 5 matchup against the Bears.
The bottom half of this week’s rankings include unbeaten Limestone at No. 6, followed by Fairmont State at No. 7 and HPU at No. 8, respectively. Fairmont State moved into seventh following a MEC win over Glenville State on Friday with a score of 266.205. The Falcons are the top seed and host of this week’s Mountain East Conference Tournament, where they will meet West Liberty in Friday's semifinals. Hawaii Pacific is eighth this week.
King remained at No. 9, while Converse rounded out this week’s poll at No. 10. King and Converse will meet in the semifinal round of this week’s Conference Carolinas A&T Championship in Bristol, Tenn. No. 6 Limestone will also compete in this week’s Conference Carolinas tournament with a semifinal matchup against Belmont Abbey.
The NCATA championship committee considers the overall performance of teams throughout the season thus far and utilized the following criteria to consider team rankings: W/L record, head-to-head competition, strength of schedule, common opponents, average meet score, average meet start value, score differential (execution) and human elements.
The NCATA selection committee includes Michael Duffy (Adrian College), Kristi Kiefer (Fairmont State), Melinda Grier (NCATA), Jackson Stava (NCATA) and Janell Cook (NCATA).
The seedings and pairings for the 2022 NCATA National Championships will be announced on Monday, April 11.
NCATA Championship Rankings #3 (April 6, 2022)
1. Baylor University
2. Azusa Pacific University
3. Gannon University
4. Quinnipiac University
5. University of Oregon
6. Limestone University
7. Fairmont State University
8. Hawaii Pacific University
9. King University
10. Converse University
- Top 8 teams will qualify for the NCATA National Championship Tournament
- Results as of 4-3-22 considered in this week’s rankings
- The 2022 NCATA Championship Bracket will be announced on Monday, April 11