Fairmont, W.Va. – Coach Taylor Broadwater and her Glenville State Acrobatics & Tumbling team opened the 2023 campaign Sunday afternoon at Fairmont, and the squad opened strong. The young Lady Pioneer squad defeated Notre Dame in the Tri-Meet 257.13-179.67, but fell to the host Fairmont squad in a hard-fought battle, 266.30-257.13.
 
Glenville came out of the Compulsories, the opening event, completing the four heats with a score of 35.35. This placed them ahead of Notre Dame at 31.45 and behind Fairmont at 37.70. Coach Broadwater's squad continued to produce separation from Notre Dame throughout the afternoon and maintained some striking distance to Fairmont. GSU was steady throughout the competition; the posted a 26.25 in the three heats of the Acro event to remain within four points of Fairmont, and followed that with a 28.40 in the Pyramid events, adding their total to 90.00 at the half. This sent them into intermission still just four points behind the Falcons (94.15). Notre Dame went into the break at 73.50.
 
Broadwater' squad opened the second half in the Toss event, with an electrifying 450 Salto Toss of 9.600. The GSU Salto Toss unit of Sadie Eddins, Ashton Lowe, Mackenzie Bathe, Autumn Spangler, and Savannah Duckworth. picked up a full half-point to carve into the Fairmont advantage. They were able to ride that momentum to a 27.55 over the three heats, and drew the overall margin to 3.7 points behind the Falcons (121.20-117.55). They followed this was a solid showing in the six-heat tumbling event; GSU kept the margin in single digits with the tumbling unit of Madisyn Hahn, Savannah Duckworth, Mackenzie Bathe, Megan Bankes, Abigail McDermott, Erin Finney, Sadie Eddins, Payten Semenske, and Delaney Rosales tallying a score of 48.95. This pushed their total to 166.50, just nine points behind Fairmont (175.50) going into the finale, the Team Event.
 
Glenville closed with a strong showing in the Team Event, posting a score of 90.63, for the final total of 257.13. This surged the team to a team score of over 255…the program's largest season-opening score since the Nationally ranked team of 2019.  
 
Glenville is back in action next Sunday, traveling to league rival West Liberty on Sunday. Events begin at 2:00 PM on the Hilltop at West Liberty's ASRC.