The competitive cheer team placed eighth in gameday and seventh in mat at nationals at Disney over the weekend, making it to finals in both categories.
Senior Carly Dowhy said the team had a positive outlook going into nationals.
“We were just focused on making our last performances of the season something that we could all feel proud of,” Dowhy said.
Senior Vivien Skalos said they hit both routines and had good energy throughout the competition.
“It went great. We went out with good energy for both routines and knew what we had to do to hit both,” Skalos said.
She said the highlight of the competition was finding out they made it to finals for mat.
“We were in a really hard division, so being one of the finalists means a lot,” Skalos said.
The team also made finals last year, but Skalos said the team has greatly improved since then, especially with their confidence.
“Our confidence was much higher (this year) and also our difficulty in our stunts as well,” she said.
She said the gameday routine went very well.
“I think all of the gameday went really well, especially our cheer. For the mat, I think our first stunt went really well,” Skalos said. “Also, our ending pyramid was really good.”
Dowhy added that the team also improved their placing for their gameday routine, as the team placed ninth last year in nationals, but moved up to eighth this year.
Skalos said that freshman Bella Edwards stood out throughout the competition, saying that “throughout this whole season she has gotten immensely better and was able to hit all her stunts this week with confidence.”
Overall, Skalos attributed the team’s success to their motivation and teamwork.
“We just stuck together and pushed ourselves because we knew we could hit the routines, but only if we worked with each other and cheered everyone on,” she said.
Dowhy admired her teammates’ ability to perform as well as they did.
“I would have to say every single person on this team stood out because to be able to hit each of our routines every day is really something to be proud of. And I am very proud to have ended the season this way,” Dowhy said.
Going into each routine, their confidence levels are what led them to success, she said.
“In each performance we were so confident going onto the mat and that led us to hit our routine each time we competed mat and gameday,” Dowhy said.
Skalos has done sideline cheer for three years and competitive cheer for two. She said she is grateful for the season playing out so successfully.
“It’s definitely sad that I will never cheer competitively for Baldwin again, but I am grateful for how this season ended and couldn’t be more proud of everyone on this team.”
