Photo - UK Athletics
A Todd County Central grad is among the athletes that officially kicked off a new sport at the University of Kentucky over the weekend. After announcing back in September that it was adding the sport of Stunt, UK’s team, which includes freshman Baylee Klees, of Trenton, started competition with four matches over the weekend.
Bailey is a “flyer” for the UK Stunt team.
Klees is a May 2021 grad from Todd County Central. She was a four-year member of the cheerleading squad, and served as captain during her senior year. She also cheered at the middle school level for two years.
STUNT is described as “a competitive, head-to-head, four-quarter game between two teams that focuses on the technical and athletic aspects of Cheer. The skills that a young athlete has learned through Cheer (partner stunts, pyramids, jumps, tosses, tumbling) define the routines that must be performed in each of the four quarters by both teams head-to-head on the floor at the same time. The team that executes the skills best wins the round and the point. That team then has the opportunity to determine which routine level will be called next. This allows the coaches to employ a great deal of strategy throughout the game to advantage their team and affect the outcome of the game.
At the time that UK announced it was adding the sport in September, 56 four-year NCAA and NAIA schools had a varsity or club team, including UK’s existing club team. Nine additional schools are committed to begin in 2023.
UK had a tough go of it in the opening weekend losing matches with California Baptist, Oklahoma Baptist, Texas, and Dallas Baptist.
UK will host its first home match on March 12 when Ashland University comes to Lexington.
