At Lakeland Senior High School on Dec. 4, the varsity team participated in regionals as their first big competition of the season. Led by Coach Terri King, the varsity team ended with a score of 78 and with an invitation to nationals.

A score of 65 was needed to qualify, which the team surpassed by 13 points. The team has to compete at a second regionals to make it to states.

“[For nationals] we make our skills a little bit more difficult,” King said. “A little bit of tumbling, our cheer stays the same, but it’s just about making our sense of difficulty harder.”

The varsity team consisted of 16 different cheerleaders, with two bases, a backspot and a flyer in each formation. Three captains were designated to help coach the team through the competitions: seniors Abby O’Donnell, Ella Laureano, and Emma Johnson. As one of their first huge competitions, O’Donnell states that regionals was a learning experience for the team. 

“We learned a lot from Saturday,” O’Donnell said. “A part of my job as captain is to keep the team focused as well as positive and motivated on competition day and the rest of the season and excitement was definitely there but we just have to use it correctly.”

Placements were not available for varsity, as they were not aiming for a rank and went out of sequential order when performing since the main goal for them was just to get a “bid to nationals.” This was not their best performance, as Johnson and Laureano describe it, but it was rather imperfect. 

“It was our first big competition,” Johnson said. “We don’t usually hit perfect until closer to the end of the season.”

As a whole, the varsity squad understood that they had room for improvement as they get better throughout the year.

“It may not have been our very best performance but we don’t want to peak yet, since it’s only the beginning of the season.” Captain Laureano said.