The West Liberty Acrobatics and Tumbling team concluded their season on a masterful note, securing a runner-up finish during the Mountain East Conference Championships. The team’s Head Coach, Kelsey Kyle, was extremely proud of her team’s success throughout this challenging season, and for good reason. When taking a look back on this season’s success, much can be said about the adversity this team had battled against, and where the future is headed for this program as a whole.

Although the Hilltoppers ultimately fell to nationally ranked Fairmont State University once more by a final score of 257.035-262.725, individual and single event successes were certainly present and deserve to be noted. The Hilltoppers took home a total of three Mountain East Conference Titles for events in the Seven-Element Acrobatics heat, the Inverted Pyramid, and the Tumbling Aerial Pass. Although the Hilltoppers unfortunately came up short in the overall team event, successes elsewhere shines light on the future of this team.

West Liberty opened the season back on March 2 against Davis and Elkins College, in which they secured the victory rather handedly by the final score of 255.720-244.335. It was undoubtedly a great opener to the season for this program, setting a school record for points scored, and finding great individual successes in the process.

As time progressed into the next matchup, the Lady Hilltoppers were set to compete against West Virginia Wesleyan College. They once again saw themselves in the victory column with the final score being 253.445-244.135.

Undoubtedly the best performance of the season for West Liberty came against Glenville State College on March 18, as the team shattered their previous team record set earlier in the season with a 266.395-254.240 victory. Trouble soon surmounted as the season began to dwindle, as regular season losses against Gannon University and Fairmont State University forced the Hilltoppers to adjust much of their game plan heading into the conference championships.

With only a few seniors moving on from the team, and a couple returning thanks to their COVID-19 eligibility year, the direction in which this program continues to trend is undoubtedly up. Even though Fairmont State has captured back-to-back titles, expect the Hilltoppers to potentially claim that throne next season, and possibly many to come.