Second surprise

INDIANAPOLIS — They were prepared for fourth, hoping for third.
What they got was even better.
After Mooresville was named in fourth place, the Patriots were ready. They knew their routine in the finals was not as strong is it could have been, so third place was their target.
Then, the announcement: Third place, the Mount Vernon Marauders.
Jaws dropped.
“How can this be happening,” said sophomore Breea Liette, eyes wide and mouth agape.
Emotions quickly turned from shock and surprise to elation Saturday as the Jay County High School cheerleading squad claimed second place in the large varsity without music division at the Indiana State Fair cheerleading competition.
“I was so shocked,” said senior Sierra Trobridge. “I was going to be happy for third place, but then I was ecstatic when we got second.
“I got chills when they called Mount Vernon and not us.”
The only team to top the Patriots was defending champion Pendleton Heights.
JCHS continued its every-other-year streak of runner-up finishes, following second-place efforts in 2013, ’11 and ’09. It was the eighth straight year in which the Patriots finished in the top three.
“Honestly I didn’t think our routine stuck like it should’ve. Our evening performance, not that it was bad, but our morning performance was a lot better. I was expecting top three, definitely, but I was expecting third, and getting second was the greatest feeling that I could have ever felt,” said junior Samantha Link. “I’ve never been in tears that fast before … It was a great surprise.”
It was a surprise because the Patriots knew they weren’t perfect.
Their preliminary routine about noon Saturday had been the best of the summer, the culmination of a consistent pattern of improvement throughout their final week of preparation. In the finals, a couple of stunts fell and there were bobbles on others.
But while the scores for stunts/pyramids/tosses were lower than they would have liked, they excelled elsewhere.
Out of a possible 80 points for jumps, Jay County pulled in 71.5. That included a 19 out of 20 from one judge, and 18 from two others.
“That’s what picked us up,” said JCHS coach Abby Champ. “We don’t stunt as difficult as Tri-West or Pendleton, and we knew that. So we have to make up for it.”
They also posted high totals — 33 out of a possible 40 — in the motion technique/execution category, including a 9 out of 10 from one judge. It’s that area where the little things make a big difference, and where the Jay County’s traditional focus on performing as clean and precise a routine as possible pays off.
“Before we go on, Abby always pumps us up and she reminds us of all the little things that we need to fix,” said Liette. “Doing all those things right must have boosted the points … It just helped us a lot.”
The tumbling also came through for JCHS, which has the entire squad performing triple jump handsprings. Add to those 14 roundoff handspring tucks, 10 handspring tucks and nine roundoff tucks and the Patriots give the judges a lot to take in.
“Our tumbling went super well,” said senior Miranda Hibbard. “We’re just all timed. We basically look like one.”
“We have about as much variety as you can get without putting a standing tuck in there,” added Champ. “And we show lots of big groups, which is huge in cheerleading. A lot of teams don’t do that.”
Those things — outstanding jumps, attention to detail and strong tumbling — helped the Patriots overcome some hiccups, lifting them from what they thought might have been a fourth-place finish to second at the state fair.
“I feel like we definitely put our all out there on that mat,” said Link. “We gave it our everything, and sometimes things don’t work out like they should. But even then, obviously, the results can be fantastic.”