BEREA, Ohio - The Baldwin Wallace University STUNT team is preparing for its inaugural 2024 campaign.
At the helm of the team is Head STUNT Coach Gretchen Toddy, who is also the head cheer coach. Coach Toddy brings along seven members of the cheer team for the inaugural STUNT class.
The members of the STUNT team carry four unique positions: Back, Base, Top, and Tumbler.
Backs help lift the top into the base's hands and support the structure. Bases are the ones who support the top in the air. The top is the person who gets lifted or tossed into the air. Tumblers are responsible for jumping and flipping.
On the freshman side, Maddy Miehls (Stryker) is a base and Roxanne Slyman (Willoughby Hills / Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) is a back.
The sophomores consist of Keira Donkers (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Mount Lebanon), Lily Knox (Stow / St. Vincent-St. Mary), Madelyn Morrison (Conneaut), Kaylee Spangler (Brook Park / North Royalton), and Mia Tomei (Chagrin Falls / Notre Dame Cathedral Latin). Donkers, Knox, and Spangler are tops. Morrison holds the positions of base, back, and tumbler. Tomei is a back.
The juniors include Ashley Blascak (Grafton / Midview), Janelle Ludwick (Berea / St. Joseph Academy), and Brit Woodrow (Newark). Blascak and Ludwick hold the positions of base and tumbler, respectively. Woodrow is a base and a top.
Director of Athletics Steve Thompson announced that STUNT would be added as the university's 25th varsity program in October 2022. BW is the 15th NCAA Division III school, the eighth in the state of Ohio, and third in the Ohio Athletic Conference to offer STUNT.
STUNT is one of the fastest-growing female sports in the country and governed by USA Cheer. The sport removes the crowd-leading element and focuses on the technical and athletic components of cheer, including partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, group jumps and tumbling. Teams perform short routines head-to-head on the floor at the same time and the team that executes the skills best wins the round and the point and can determine which routine level will be called next.
Each game of STUNT consists of four quarters of play, including a halftime. The first quarter is partner stunts, the second quarter is pyramids and tosses, the third quarter is jumps and tumbling, and the fourth quarter is team performance.
The Yellow Jackets open the 2024 season on Friday, Feb. 2, traveling to Nashville, Tennessee and the campus of Trevecca Nazarene University to face Walsh University and Malone University in the Trojan Fieldhouse. On Saturday, Feb. 3, BW faces Mercyhurst (Pa.) University and Trevecca Nazarene.
The Yellow Jackets home opener is set for Friday, Feb. 23 against Heidelberg University in Ursprung Gymnasium inside the Lou Higgins Center.
