Wichita State coed cheer team wins prestigious NCA national championship
That's what separated the Wichita State cheer team from the program's first national championship when the team took the stage Friday evening in Daytona Beach, Florida.
All they needed was to avoid disaster. Instead, the Shockers found near perfection.
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A second straight clean performance from Wichita State clinched the Intermediate Large Coed Division 1 title at the National Cheerleaders Association College Nationals. The Shockers entered with a sizable cushion from preliminaries, then clinched the championship with an event score of 97.5371 to finish nearly two points higher than runner-up VCU.
WSU also finished with the fourth-highest score in all divisions, which included nearly 300 teams from across the country.
'It was just like a dream come true,' WSU cheer coach April Banwart said. 'We've been working on this routine since October, working on perfecting every single part of it as much as we can. You only get two shots at this and they hit their routine two nights in a row. No falls, maybe one bobble. They looked so clean and they were together on timing. When we walked off the mat, we felt good. We knew we had it.'
The championship in April was the culmination of six months of work, which included more than 100 practices (many coming at 5:45 a.m.), more than 60 game appearances and more than 60 fundraising or other appearances. In total, Banwart estimates the team spent close to 700 hours in preparation for two chances to perform their 2-minute-15-second routine at nationals.
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WSU jam-packed as many skills as possible in its routine, which ultimately aided the team to victory. The team executed eight basket tosses during its routine, the most of any team in the competition, then also maximized scoring chances in its tumbling and stunt sections.
That's why WSU was so confident walking off the mat on Friday that it had just won the national championship, even two hours before the official results were revealed. Simply put, the Shockers had the most difficult routine and executed it the best.
'I'm so extremely proud of the time and effort and attention to detail and hours and reps that they had to put into this to make this happen,' said Banwart, who won a national title as a cheerleader at Northwest Missouri State in 2010. 'The trust that they put into me to help them achieve this was just amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better group and a better routine that they put out there.'
Banwart was assisted by coach Nathan Hermes, while members of the title-winning team included Natalie Arnold, Aislynn Brantley, Zarek Burkert, Ransom Butler, Lindsey Cottingham, Kennedy Denson, Bella Gorges, Rafael Guereque, Luis Holguin, Elyssa Kreutzer, Elise LeGrand, Riley Martin, Lexie Miller, Angel Morales, Matt Nichols, Abby Osborn, Izzy Peine, Taylor Pickering, Priscila Ramirez, Max Rickard, Carter Stelting and Valerie Stubbs.
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