FLORENCE, SC – The Francis Marion University acrobatics and tumbling team fell to Mars Hill University 229.900-198.545 in its season opener on Sunday (Feb. 9) afternoon.
The Patriots (0-1) will travel to Wingate University to compete on Thursday (Feb. 13) at 6 p.m.
Francis Marion opened the meet with the Compulsory Event, scoring a total of 28.500. Of the four heats that make up Compulsory, the pyramid and toss heats awarded Francis Marion a combined total of 17.950 points.
Mars Hill (1-0) recorded 35.350 points out of 40.000 to finish Compulsory.
In the Acro event of the meet, FMU tallied 6.100 out of 8.600 points for Heat one (five element). Heat three (seven element) scored 5.350 for the Patriots while the Lions scored 8.60.
Mars Hill led Francis Marion by a score of 60.850-44.850 as both teams entered the Pyramid event of the meet.
With a start value of 9.50, the Patriots tallied 8.100 points during Heat one (inversion pyramid). The Lions scored 8.400 points out of 9.70 for the same heat. Out of the total 23.150 points scored by Francis Marion for Pyramid, heat two and three supplemented 15.050 points.
Mars Hill continued to lead 87.350-68.000 as the teams went into the halftime break.
Francis Marion scored a total of 22.700 out of a possible 27.100 during the Toss event while Mars Hill scored 24.100 out of 27.900.
Francis Marion won three out of the six Tumbling events, including duo pass, aerial pass, and the open pass. With a start value of 8.75, sophomore tumbler
Hailey Gaither and freshman tumbler
Jordyn Hines scored 7.450 for duo. Gaither's aerial pass scored 8.025 out of the total 8.70 and Hines' open pass scored 8.100 out of 8.75.
Despite winning half of the events in Tumbling, the Patriots fell 1.625 points shy of the Lions in that portion with scores of 44.100-42.475. The Patriots trailed the Lions with a running total of 155.550-133.175 before the final event of the meet.
The Patriots began team event with a start value of 91.770 and scored a total of 65.370 while the Lions scored 74.350 out of 96.450.
Francis Marion is in its second year of sponsoring acrobatics and tumbling.
