ST. LOUIS – The No. 7-ranked Maryville STUNT team is set to begin its first official season as a varsity NCAA program this weekend. The Saints will travel to Quincy, Ill., for a pair of games against Concordia Chicago and Buena Vista.

The Saints are led by head coach Kara Krawiecki, who enters her eighth season at the helm of the Maryville STUNT program. Krawiecki helped launch the program in 2017 after moving to St. Louis from Michigan, where she attended Central Michigan University and graduated in 2010. Since that time, she has turned the Saints into a STUNT powerhouse, qualifying for the National STUNT Championships last season and placing seventh.
 
"We're excited that we are now officially an NCAA sports, we're excited to have an official GLVC Conference Championship as well," Krawiecki said. "This year is going to be a lot different than in years past but the goal stays the same, to make the national tournament and place higher and higher… We are hungry, we are excited and we're ready to do our best for sure."

The Saints return Second Team National All-Tournament selection Peyton Nembhard and a strong core of experience in Zoe Grumich, Savanna Stocker, Lexi Dimas and Gracie Reagan. Those five represent the Saints' lone seniors. Maryville also welcomed 12 freshmen to the program this season.

"We have a pretty young team," Krawiecki said. "it's all first and second years aside from the five seniors… there are going to be some big years to come for sure with so many returning. This is going to be a good year to get the first years a lot of experience."

As a part of the Great Lakes Valley Conference's (GLVC) inaugural STUNT season, the Saints were voted to win the championship in the league's preseason poll, earning four of the first-place votes and 46 total points.
 
Maryville is joined by full GLVC members Drury, Lewis, Quincy and Southwest Baptist, while Trevecca Nazarene, Purdue Northwest and Ferris State compete as associate members. In years past, the Saints have faced each of these teams, with Trevecca posing one of the biggest challenges. The Trojans sit two spots behind Maryville in the national preseason poll at No. 9 and were picked second in the GLVC preseason poll.
The Saints' second weekend of competition will be one of their toughest, as they head to Shawnee, Okla., to face No. 2 Oklahoma Baptist, No. 4 Dallas Baptist, No. 11 Texas Woman's and No. 14 Southern Nazarene.
 
Maryville will host its own STUNT Invite from Feb. 28 to March 1 at Moloney Arena, featuring all GLVC squads.

"We look forward to getting our name and our program out there more and more to the Maryville community each year," Krawiecki said. "I feel like people are finding out about us more each year… We are super excited for our home tournament, a big GLVC tournament, so we're excited to have everyone come out."

WHAT IS STUNT?
From STUNTtheSport.org
STUNT, one of the fastest growing female sports in the country, 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.
 
These elements are put together in short routines that both teams must perform head-to-head on the floor at the same time. The team that executes the skills best wins the round and the point. With four quarters of play – partner stunts, pyramids & tosses, jumps & tumbling, and team routine – STUNT is an exciting sport to play, coach and watch.
 
USA Cheer created STUNT as an opportunity for colleges, universities and high schools to meet the strict Title IX requirements of a sport. STUNT expands participation opportunities for the over 500,000 high school cheerleaders in the U.S. by providing an avenue for these female athletes to use their cheerleading background in a new format.