Third at the fair

INDIANAPOLIS — With an inexperienced squad, the Eagles were just hoping to get through the preliminaries to the top five.

They did it. And then climbed another spot. And then another.

West Jay Middle School’s cheerleading squad soared all the way to third place with 288.3 points Saturday, finishing behind only defending champion Fall Creek and runner-up Tri-West at the Indiana State Fair cheerleading competition.

“I’m pumped,” said WJMS coach Brea Burcham. “I honestly am lost for words. I didn’t expect to get third.”

The Eagles headed to the state fair this year with a small squad, just eight girls. Of that group, five are sixth graders. Only the two eighth graders — Kaden Norris and Mattie Ardizzone — had been on a state fair mat before, because last year’s competition was rained out.

Given those facts, the goal for West Jay had simply been to advance to the top five.

They were shocked upon achieving it as they were the last finalist squad announced Saturday afternoon.

“It feels, like, surreal to us,” said sixth grader Alana Trissel.

“We didn’t think we would make it,” added Norris.

So as they awaited results from the finals, counted down from fifth to first, they were expecting to hear their name called early. But the first school on the list was Brownsburg; the next, Southport.

“They were pretty pumped when we weren’t fifth,” said Burcham. “They were excited for fourth. So when they announced us as third, all their faces, they were just in shock because they couldn’t believe that they had just got third place at state fair.”

West Jay’s 288.3 points (out of a possible 400) put it easily clear of the fourth- and fifth-place squads, which came in at 270.5 and 268.6 respectively.

Fall Creek, which also won in 2015, combined a high level of difficulty and excellent execution to run away with the title with 333 points. Tri-West was the runner-up at 309.

It was a difficult day for East Jay, which did not make the cut to get into the finals. The squad’s last top-five finish came with a fourth-place effort in 2014.

The Chiefs’ best marks came for motion technique/execution as they scored an overall total of 194.5 (out of a possible 300) in the preliminaries.

Coach Olivia Cash felt nerves played a role in her squad not performing quite as well as it would have liked.

“I definitely think their performance was stronger at the preview show,” said Cash, while adding that she still thought her squad had done enough to advance to the finals. “I could definitely tell nerves kicked in as soon as they touched that mat. … That was to be expected.”

West Jay, which posted a 220 during the preliminaries, was the last squad to compete in the finals.

If the Eagles had nerves at that point, it didn’t show.

As they were preparing to walk on from the east side of the stage, a gust of wind came along and blew the two sections of the mat on the opposite side into the air. Without hesitation, the girls hustled across the stage to put everything back in place as their fans cheered them on.

West Jay then took the mat and performed a routine in which six girls hitting back handsprings into back tucks and every stunt stayed in the air.

The goal had been to perform a cleaner routine than earlier in the day, and Burcham was happy with the result.

“They fixed a lot of their timing,” she said. “The timing on our jumps and toe-touch back handsprings was 10 times better. And I think they cleaned up their routine.”

The Eagles, who were fourth in 2015 and won the state fair title in 2014, earned high marks across the board for motion technique/execution (including a 9 out of 10 from one judge), crowd appeal/voices and overall routine/synchronization.

“I’m very proud of the girls,” said Burcham. “They went out and gave 100 percent. … That’s what I asked for before they went out there. I said, ‘I want you to go out there and I want you to have fun and I want you to give me everything you’ve got.’ And they did.”