It was a successful return to Yorkton from Honolulu, Hawaii, for the YRHS Raider and Yorkton Gridder cheer teams as both cheer squads brought home medals from the two day Aloha International Spirit Competition held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, from April 3-4.
The YRHS Raiders wrapped up their perfect 2015 season with their fourth consecutive gold medal performance, scoring 37.00 in their pyramids, dismounts, tosses, transitions and formations category, a 42.40 in their stunts, jumps, dance and creativity category and a 40.00 in their tumbling, motions and synchronization category for a total of 119.40 points in their first run.
Unfortunately a two point deduction dropped their score to 117.40/150 for 78.3% perfection percentage.
Day Two saw the Raider cheer team rebound with better performances in both the pyramids, tosses, transitions and formations category and stunts, jumps, dance and creativity category, scoring 37.50 in the first category and 42.50 in the second one while matching their Day One tumbling, motions and synchronization category score at 40.00.
A clean run meant that the YRHS girls finished with 120 points out of a possible 150 for an 80% perfection percentage, bumping their overall total to 237.40 and a 79.1% perfection percentage.
The 80% score in their second run was something that cheerleading coach Jennifer Ingham said was one of their goals upon learning that they were the only team in their competition category at the Honolulu competition. 鈥淲e were the only ones in our category because there were so few high school teams there (four in total) so we really looked at it as competing against ourselves and against the scoresheet to see how well we could perform,鈥� offered Ingham, continuing, 鈥淥ur second run was 80% and I was really happy with that mark. The scoresheets were different than what we were used to because in Saskatchewan we follow the Cheer Canada scoresheets and in the United States each competition or company uses their own scoresheets so we scored a little bit lower than what we鈥檙e used to in Saskatchewan, but we鈥檙e still really happy with that 80%.鈥�
Ingham also said that the girls, who picked up their fourth consecutive gold medal of the season, performed well enough to impress the judges and many other competitors, saying, 鈥淲e had a lot of positive feedback from the judges. They really liked our routine and certainly it was two of our best runs of the season and that鈥檚 all I could ask for of the girls.
鈥淭hey did an amazing job.鈥�
The Yorkton Gridders cheer team, competing in the Senior Level Two All-Star category, also came home with medals from the Honolulu competition thanks to a strong Day Two score that saw them leapfrog two American All-Star teams and onto the podium for a third place finish.
Day One saw the Gridders cheer team come out slowly with scores of 37.00, 40.10 and 38.80 for 123.40 points and an 82.3% perfection percentage in a clean run, putting them in fifth place after the first day of competition. 鈥淎fter our first run, a clean run and one of our best of the season, we were in fifth place,鈥� mentioned Ingham on the performance of the Gridders girls. 鈥淲e were really happy at that point, we were definitely competitive with the other teams but we knew that if we wanted to move up in the standings we had to run another clean routine.鈥�
They did just that, scoring 38.80, 39.60 and 38.80 for a total of 125.20 for an 83.5% perfection percentage in their second run, upping their overall score to 248.60 and 82.9%, .5% higher than fourth place Celebrity Cheer Hollywood (Auburn, Washington) but 3.2% behind the silver medalists from Huetter, Idaho (Spotlight Studios Northstar Orion) and 3.5% behind the gold medalists from Waipahu, Hawaii (Aloha Cheer Academy).
The third place finish gave the Gridders their first bronze medal of the season, but third medal in total as they had previously won the Warman competition and finished second at Provincials in Moose Jaw.
What makes the Gridders performance, as well as the Raiders performance, more impressive is that they had to alter their routines prior to competing in Hawaii due to different rules and regulations. 鈥淚n Saskatchewan the All-Star and the School rules, as far as legalities, are the same,鈥� explained Coach Ingham. 鈥淚n Hawaii this particular competition had their own set of rules so we weren鈥檛 allowed to do any tosses where the athlete鈥檚 feet physically left the girls鈥� hands.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 do any transitions over another athlete鈥檚 head so we took out our leapfrog and a few other things. We only had a week to make those changes but our girls are very versatile this year and they adapted quite well.鈥�
Both teams now head into the cheerleading offseason after very successful 2015 campaigns that saw the two teams combine for five gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal over four different competitions.
