The Highlander competitive cheer team took first place in mat and second place in game day in a competition at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown on Sunday.
Freshman Macie Sluginski was a standout for the team during the mat routine.
“She stepped in when another teammate was out and did very well adapting to the mat routine,” Junior Juliana Weiss said.
Freshman Jocelyn Sakely said captains Leah Moeller, Alayna Scanlon, Mia Polito, and Gianna Tirpak greatly impacted the team’s devotion and hard work.
Still, Weiss said the team could have performed better with more practice.
“Our performance wasn’t to our best potential this week due to having teammates in and out of the routine for weeks. There were some parts that went really well but there were more mistakes than improvements,” Weiss said.
During the team’s game day competition, there were some issues with stunts, but the team recovered well.
“When any stunts fall through, we scream louder and work hard because we know we have to make up for what we messed up on,” Sakely said.
The team is looking forward to continuing to improve in coming weeks.
“I think we can improve how our stunts at practice transition to our performance on competition days,” Weiss said. “We can also definitely work on our confidence and concentration when it’s performance.”
The team’s next competition is the WPIAL competition on Jan. 4.
