BELMONT, N.C. — The Belmont Abbey acrobatics and tumbling team celebrated five seniors and earned its first win of the season as Belmont Abbey defeated Francis Marion 228.240-195.325 Friday evening at the Wheeler Center.

The senior class of Anna Audet, Sarah Brady, Grace Carroll, Mackenzie Linegar and Isabella Schrout were all honored in a post-meet ceremony.

The victory is the first in the career of head coach Haley Allen.

The Crusaders are now 1-5 overall and in Conference Carolinas competition while Francis Marion is 0-7 overall and 0-6 in league competition.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Event 1 — Compulsory
The meet opened with the Crusaders jumping out to an early 32.0-23.2 lead over the Patriots. Belmont Abbey's best scores came in the Toss and Pyramid heats with scores of 9.65 and 9.05, respectively.

Event 2 — Acro
In the Acro event, Belmont Abbey finished with a 22.15/29.5 total compared to a 22.55/27.8 for Francis Marion.
The best score for the Abbey came in 7 Element Acro, scoring an 8.05/9.95. Katilyn Blakeney, Sadie Hunt, Isabella Schrout, Alyssa Westbrook and Andresa Orendain competed in the heat for the Abbey.

Event 3 — Pyramid
Belmont Abbey concluded the first half of the meet with a score of 27.1/29.3. The best score for the Crusaders came in the Open Pyramid with a 9.7/10.

Competing for the Crusaders in the heat was Sarah Brady, Payton Lanier, Brianna Buchear, Alyssa Westbrook, Mackenzie Linegar and Allison Gonyo competing for the Abbey. It is the second consecutive meet scoring a 9.7 or higher.
 
Belmont Abbey also added an 8.8/9.8 in the Synchronized Pyramid and an 8.6/9.5 in the Inversion Pyramid.

Francis Marion scored a 24.5/27.4 in the event and Belmont Abbey led 81.25-69.5 at  halftime.

Event 4 — Toss
The second half of the meet continued in the Toss event, with Belmont Abbey edging out Francis Marion 24.7-24.5. The Crusaders finished with a pair of scores that are 8.4 or higher in the event with an 8.40/9.0 in the 450 Salto Toss and an 8.5/9.4 in the Open Tosss.

Competing in the 450 Salto Toss was Payton Lanier, Westbrook, Audet, Mckenna Shane, Brielle Ehasz and Brady. In the Open Toss was Schrout, Linegar, Buchear, Carroll, Blakeney and Brady.
 
Event 5 — Tumbling
The Crusaders finished with a total of 47.05 points compared to 41.325 for Francis Marion.
 
In the team passes, the best score came in the Trio Pass with Belmont Abbey scoring a 7.9/8.75, improving from the 7.65 from last week. Tia Fluellen competed along with Mckenna Shane and Meagan Henry in the heat.
 
Fluellen also scored a 9.0/9.55 in the Aerial Pass as the highest individual pass score. Additionally, Henry scored an 8.45/8.75 in the Open Pass while Shane scored a 7.95/8.6 in the 6 Element Pass.

Event 6 — Team Event
The meet concluded with Belmont Abbey scoring an 75.24/96.19 compared to a 60.0/88.21 for Francis Marion.

UP NEXT

• Belmont Abbey closes the regular season with a dual meet at Converse.
• The meet is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start in Spartanburg, S.C.