February 12, 2018 at 6:38 p.m.
JCHS places 13th
JCHS places 13th
ORLANDO, Florida — The Patriots took what they learned from the preliminaries and used it to send their semifinal score soaring.
The improvement just wasn’t quite enough to earn them a return trip to the finals.
Jay County High School’s cheerleaders fell just two spots short of advancing, as they finished in 13th place Saturday in medium varsity Division II at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National High School Cheerleading Championship at ESPN Wide World of Sports Fieldhouse.
“It was the best routine we’ve ever done,” said Abby Champ, who coaches the Patriots along with Ashley Loucks. “It was a zero deduction, so we had no falls, no hands down, no major error.
“Our heart just hurt, because that was the best we could do and it just wasn’t good enough.”
Jay County scored 82.1 points in the semifinals, an increase of six from the preliminaries, but each of the squads in front of it also had no deductions. That left it 1.8 points behind the last qualifier — MacArthur of Wantagh, New York, on Long Island — as half of the 18 squads moved on to join the two that moved to the finals directly from the preliminary round.
Corbin (Kentucky) went on to win the medium varsity Division II national championship Sunday evening.
The Patriots had felt the pressure to match last season’s seventh-place finish at nationals. So there were some mixed emotions about the results, but still an overall sense of accomplishment.
“It’s just hard,” said senior Sydnee Lee. “I know a bunch of us are trying to compare to last year, but we can’t because it’s a whole new year — different scoresheet, different teams.
The improvement just wasn’t quite enough to earn them a return trip to the finals.
Jay County High School’s cheerleaders fell just two spots short of advancing, as they finished in 13th place Saturday in medium varsity Division II at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National High School Cheerleading Championship at ESPN Wide World of Sports Fieldhouse.
“It was the best routine we’ve ever done,” said Abby Champ, who coaches the Patriots along with Ashley Loucks. “It was a zero deduction, so we had no falls, no hands down, no major error.
“Our heart just hurt, because that was the best we could do and it just wasn’t good enough.”
Jay County scored 82.1 points in the semifinals, an increase of six from the preliminaries, but each of the squads in front of it also had no deductions. That left it 1.8 points behind the last qualifier — MacArthur of Wantagh, New York, on Long Island — as half of the 18 squads moved on to join the two that moved to the finals directly from the preliminary round.
Corbin (Kentucky) went on to win the medium varsity Division II national championship Sunday evening.
The Patriots had felt the pressure to match last season’s seventh-place finish at nationals. So there were some mixed emotions about the results, but still an overall sense of accomplishment.
“It’s just hard,” said senior Sydnee Lee. “I know a bunch of us are trying to compare to last year, but we can’t because it’s a whole new year — different scoresheet, different teams.
“I think, personally, that we did everything that we could. There’s nothing I would really change.
“I’m proud of our team for what we did.”
Jay County opened its second consecutive trip to nationals Saturday afternoon by placing eighth in their preliminary group to advance to the evening’s semifinals.
After looking at the scoresheets, Champ and Loucks gave their girls three things to focus on — energy moving from the cheer into stunts, finishing stunts cleanly and hitting the dance section. The Patriots improved in all three of those areas and especially wowed the judges with their cheer section, for which they scored 32.5 out of a possible 35 points.
Saturday’s two routines capped off a season that saw Jay County post the highest score at the Indiana Cheer Championship preliminaries before struggling the next week at the state finals. They bounced back two weeks later to finish as the runner-up at the UCA Hoosier Championship and earn a national berth for the second year in a row.
“Obviously we are extremely proud of them,” said Champ. “Zero deductions and a six-point increase, that’s just an anomaly to not advance when those happen. … To have that kind of improvement, that speaks volumes of the routine that they had and what they put out there.”
“I’m proud of our team for what we did.”
Jay County opened its second consecutive trip to nationals Saturday afternoon by placing eighth in their preliminary group to advance to the evening’s semifinals.
After looking at the scoresheets, Champ and Loucks gave their girls three things to focus on — energy moving from the cheer into stunts, finishing stunts cleanly and hitting the dance section. The Patriots improved in all three of those areas and especially wowed the judges with their cheer section, for which they scored 32.5 out of a possible 35 points.
Saturday’s two routines capped off a season that saw Jay County post the highest score at the Indiana Cheer Championship preliminaries before struggling the next week at the state finals. They bounced back two weeks later to finish as the runner-up at the UCA Hoosier Championship and earn a national berth for the second year in a row.
“Obviously we are extremely proud of them,” said Champ. “Zero deductions and a six-point increase, that’s just an anomaly to not advance when those happen. … To have that kind of improvement, that speaks volumes of the routine that they had and what they put out there.”
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