Three Yorkton cheerleading teams 鈥� the Youth Gridders, Senior Gridders and YRHS Raiders 鈥� travelled to Moose Jaw Saturday, March 21 for the ninth annual Saskatchewan Provincial Cheerleading Competition at the Moose Jaw Yara Centre.
All three teams represented the City of Yorkton exceptionally well with both the Youth Gridders and YRHS Raiders bringing home Provincial titles while the Senior Gridders were named runners up for the third consecutive year. 鈥淲e鈥檙e extremely proud of all of the athletes that competed,鈥� suggested cheerleading head coach Jennifer Ingham. 鈥淭hey all did so well and to have two firsts and a second at provincials, it鈥檚 amazing.鈥�
The first Yorkton team to compete on Saturday was the Youth Gridders, made up of first-year cheerleaders ranging in age from eight to 11. The Youth Gridders, looking to improve upon their sixth place finish in Warman at their first ever competition, surprised and amazed everyone in attendance with an impeccable run resulting in a score of 84.4 out of 90 and a perfection percentage of 94.22%.
The run proved to be the best in the Youth Level One All-Star category resulting in the Youth Gridders taking home Provincial gold. 鈥淭heir run was awesome. They had all of their stunts hit at the right times,鈥� beamed Ingham when asked about the Youth Gridders鈥� performance. 鈥淭hey had tons of energy and they really performed. Their tumbling was higher than anyone else in their age division and they came out in first place.
鈥淚t was a big surprise for us but we鈥檙e very proud of the girls and it鈥檚 quite an accomplishment to be in your first year of cheerleading and to win a Provincial championship with all of them being first year athletes.鈥�
The impressive performance by the Youth Gridders set the bar high for the second competing Yorkton team, the YRHS Raiders.
However the Raiders were more than willing to leap over the bar with a stellar performance of their own; something they did in the Senior Level Two Scholastic division en route to a score of 79.7 out of 85 and a sparkling 93.76 perfection percentage.
The Raiders were also the only team in their division to put together a clean run resulting in no deductions and the Provincial title. 鈥淚t really is a big accomplishment to run a clean routine,鈥� offered Ingham. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to run it clean every time so we鈥檙e very proud of the fact that we were the only team to run a clean routine in the category.鈥�
The first place finish is the third such finish in as many competitions this season for the YRHS team, something head coach Ingham never expected at the beginning of the season. 鈥淚 think this is the first time that we鈥檝e placed first in all of our competitions since I鈥檝e been coaching the team. Certainly we鈥檙e very proud of that. It鈥檚 unexpected but we have worked really hard all year and that鈥檚 as good as we can do this year.鈥�
The final Yorkton team to perform was the Senior Gridders team, made up largely of girls who also compete for the YRHS team.
Unfortunately the girls could not repeat their gold medal performance from earlier in the day finishing just behind the Prairie Fire Cheerleading Ignite team in second place with a score of 94.6 out of 100 for a 94.6% perfection percentage.
A deduction of .25% for a shaky stunt lowered their final score to 94.35%, still .55% better than third place RCA Marauders.
Up next
The next competition for the YRHS Raiders and Senior Gridders will be the Aloha International Spirit Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii, from April 3-4.
The Youth Gridders, meanwhile, will run their routine this coming weekend at the Springer鈥檚 Gymnastics Competition at the YRHS.
