With the 2023 national championships just under a month away from April 27-30 in West Liberty, West Virginia, the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association (NCATA) announced its second set of 2023 Championship Rankings on Wednesday afternoon.
This year’s championship will be hosted by West Liberty University at the Academic, Sports and Recreation Complex (ASRC). The eight-team, single-elimination tournament will begin on Thursday, April 27 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 Sunday mid-morning. The complete bracket and additional event information will be announced later this month.
The seven-time defending national champion Baylor Bears topped the first set of championship rankings last week and maintained their position this week following a win over No. 2 Oregon on Saturday afternoon. The Bears are currently 7-0 on the season and have topped 280 in four of their seven meets this season. The University of Oregon (3-2) remained at No. 2 this week despite the setback to the top-ranked Bears. Azusa Pacific (idle last week) is currently third in the rankings with a 4-2 record. After starting the season 0-2, the Cougars have won four-straight meets. Quinnipiac (4-1) and 2022 national finalist Gannon (5-2) once again rounded out the top five this week. Both teams picked up wins last week.
Frostburg State (6-2) remained at No. 6 despite a loss to No. 4 Quinnipiac on Saturday and Fairmont State (7-1) held firm at No. 7 following a win over West Liberty to wrap up its regular season. Hawai’i Pacific (3-2), idle last week, is eighth, followed by Limestone (8-0) and Belmont Abbey (8-1). Limestone and Belmont Abbey both added a win last week to open the month of April.
The NCATA championships 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 the teams’ progression throughout the season.
One more set of regular season rankings will be released on April 12. The 2023 championship field and at-large qualifiers for individual event finals will be released on Monday, April 17.
NCATA Championship Rankings #2 (April 5, 2023)
1. Baylor University
2. University of Oregon
3. Azusa Pacific University
4. Quinnipiac University
5. Gannon University
6. Frostburg State University
7. Fairmont State University
8. Hawai’i Pacific University
9. Limestone University
10. Belmont Abbey College
* Top 8 teams in final ranking will qualify for 2023 NCATA National Championship Tournament
** Results as of 4/2/23 considered in this week’s rankings
*** Next set of rankings will be released on Wednesday, April 12, 2023