FROSTBURG, Md. – The West Liberty University acrobatics and tumbling team won Mountain East Conference championships in back-to-back individual events here Saturday morning in an impressive performance at the MEC Individual Event Finals inside Bobcat 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.

     It didn't take long for the Black and Gold to show up in the winners' circle on Saturday as they posted a convincing win in the second event of the day, the 6-Element Acro heat.

     All-MEC standouts Kayla Gandy, Abbey Horvath and Paige McGlothlin teamed up with Audrey Prater, Avery Ray, Sarah Le and Macey Whipkey to post a 9.225 score in the event, easily outdistancing second-place Glenville State and third-place Frostburg State. The Hilltopper group was the only group to post a score of 9.0 or higher in the heat.

     The cheers had barely died down before West Liberty was back in the spotlight picking up another championship trophy. In the very next competition, the 7-Element Acro, the Hilltoppers eked out a much closer decision to win their second straight piece of hardware.

     Gandy, Horvath, Whipkey and Chloe Palmer came up big with a winning score of 9.200 to send Frostburg State (9.100) and Glenville State (9.025) away empty-handed for the second straight event.

    After coming away with three titles in last year's competition, this marks the second straight season that Coach Kelsey Kyle's Hilltoppers have claimed multiple individual event championships.

     The host Bobcats, ranked No. 6 in the nation, rebounded in the later events and wound up winning individual championships in nine of the 15 events. Fairmont State, No. 7 in the nation, finished with four titles to go along with West Liberty's two crowns.