Jay places 2nd

WESTFIELD — As it turns out, the format just doesn’t matter.
The Patriots are elite.
Jay County High School wasn’t sure what to expect as it headed to the Indiana Cheer Championships for the first time in a decade, but it walked away with a second-place finish in Saturday’s regional competition at Westfield.
“It’s exciting, definitely,” said senior Carli Ostrowski. “We’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s completely new to us.”
“We all just wanted to come out here and have fun,” added her classmate Bryttani Knight. “It was something new, so we didn’t know what to expect.”
Facing a different format and requirements than they’re used to with the Indiana State Fair competition, the Patriots’ goal was simply to earn the top-nine finish necessary to advance to Saturday’s state finals. They did much more than that, scoring 256 points to finish as the runners-up in Class B behind only two-time defending state champion Pendleton Heights (264.2).
Bishop Dwenger was third with 249.5. Other state-qualifying squads were Lowell, New Palestine, Greenwood, Munster, Cathedral and Jasper.
“I’m ecstatic,” said JCHS coach Abby Champ, whose squad will compete in Saturday’s state finals at Southport. “That’s got to be the best routine we’ve put out there. And our scores are phenomenal, even better than I would have thought. The judges really like our style, our routine. It gives us some excitement for next week.”
After a rough practice Tuesday, Jay County bounced back the rest of the week and carried positive momentum into Saturday’s regional.
The Patriots put together a strong routine from start to finish, posting their top scores for the dance portion. And although it wasn’t perfect, the final building section that had been causing them problems stayed in the air.
“The performance was definitely a lot better than (Oct. 18) and it just gave a whole different feeling than anything we’ve ever done before,” said senior Morgan Brown, referencing the exhibition JCHS had competed in two weeks earlier at Bishop Dwenger. “We were definitely more prepared …”
Jay County scored 57.8 points for its dance, again trailing only Pendleton Heights (58.8). It was also in the top three for stunts, tumbling and total impression.
The Patriots scored eights or higher out of 10 across the board in individual categories, earning perfect scores from the judges for variety in jumps, tumbling and pyramids/tosses.
They will look to fix the little things as they prepare to compete for the state title.
“We’ve got some cleaning to do,” said Champ. “Our stunts need to be more confident, even the first stunt. …
“We need to just get a more relaxed feel on those. Other than that, we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Jay County’s focus in recent years has been on the August state fair competition, at which they’ve won championships twice in the last five seasons and finished third this year behind Pendleton Heights and Tri-West.
But in her first season as coach, Champ decided to give the Indiana Cheer Championships a try as well.
The Patriots’ last effort at that event, in 2004, resulted in a fourth-place finish with then-coach Mindy Weaver earning coach of the year honors.
The Jay County ICC squad is made up of volunteers from the 24 who competed at the state fair, with Whitney Lowe, Breea Liette, Miranda Hibbard, Madison Miller, Lauren Teagle, Syndee Lee, Sierra Trobridge, Alexus Liette, Kylie Ring, Maddie Strausburg, Courtney Miles and McKenna Daniels joining Ostrowski, Knight and Brown.
Ostrowski said the cohesiveness of the group was key to Saturday’s success.
“We just have a really great squad and everyone bonds really well,” she said. “We know how to pick each other up when we’re down. I think that’s why we could recover so well from Tuesday. We just really work well together.”