2022 MEC Individual Event Finals
    FAIRMONT, W.Va. - The West Liberty University acrobatics & tumbling team won Mountain East Conference championships in three individual events here Saturday morning and just missed another in a strong showing at the MEC Individual Event Finals inside Joe Retton Arena.
    Held in conjunction with the MEC Team Championships, the Individual Event Finals match the groups that posted the top three regular season scores in each heat of the Acro, Pyramid, Toss and Tumbling events to determine the MEC's individual conference champions.
    Coach Kelsey Kyle's Hilltoppers qualified in 12 of the 15 competitions, won three of them and came within a tiebreaker of bringing home a fourth individual championship.
    The Hilltoppers got off to a flying start when Mareena Scalia, Chloe Palmer, Katie Emborsky and Paige McGlothlin teamed up to defeat groups from Fairmont, Frostburg and W.Va. Wesleyan in the very first competition of the day, the 5-Element Acro heat.
    A series of near-misses followed for the Black and Gold, highlighted by a frustrating finish in the Trio Pass heat for the Tumbling Event. Gillian Hartz, Avery Ray and Theresa Evangelista came up big in the 3-way competition with Fairmont and Frostburg. Following a lengthy delay, officials ruled that the Hilltoppers and host Falcons had tied with identical scores of 8.500 – a school-record tally for the Hilltoppers. That forced both groups to repeat their passes as part of the tiebreaking procedure with FSU edging out West Liberty for the title.
    That disappointment proved short-lived as Scalia returned to the mat a few minutes later to compete in her specialty, the Aerial Tumbling pass. The talented junior was the defending champion in the event and was fresh off setting a school record with a 9.60 pass in Friday's MEC semifinal match against Fairmont State. Scalia didn't disappoint, blowing away the field with a 9.375 pass for the second individual championship of her career and WLU's second of the day.
    The cheers from the West Liberty faithful had barely faded away before Evangelista brought them back to their feet in the very next event, the 6-Element Tumbling pass. In her final appearance in a Hilltopper uniform, the senior from Zebulon, N.C. defeated tumblers from Fairmont State and Frostburg State to finish her WLU career as a conference champion.
    West Liberty's three individual titles tied No. 7-ranked Fairmont State for the second-highest total on Saturday as upstart Frostburg State – which was scheduled to take on Fairmont in Saturday afternoon's MEC Tournament championship match – won seven event championships in the morning competition. West Virginia Wesleyan claimed the other two individual titles.