Sweet Home High School won two state championships in cheerleading over the weekend.
They won the Oregon School Activities Association 4A large division championship on Saturday at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland. They returned Sunday night to win the Oregon Cheerleading Coaches Association 4A varsity championship.
They finish the season undefeated, and the girls won the Leslie Maley Choreography Award for the second year in a row for their routine. David Douglas High School was the co-recipient. The award is given for clean choreography.
The Sweet Home Junior Cheer program, which includes athletes in the fifth through eighth grade, placed first Sunday afternoon in the OCCA junior recreation large division.
“They definitely had the two best performances they’ve had all year long,” said high school Coach Amber Rosa.
Scoring 182.4 points at the OSAA championship, the Huskies had the seventh highest score among all divisions and the second highest score among all teams 5A or smaller.
“The schools that finished ahead of us were all amazing,” Rosa said.
The best performing team in the entire competition was Thurston High School in the coed large division with 197.4 points. Newberg finished with a score of 196.5 in the 6A small division. Aloha, Tualatin, Westview and South Albany all finished in the 180s in the 5A small and 6A large divisions.
In the 4A Large division, Gladstone finished second with a score of 175.4, and North Bend finished third with a score of 161.5. The 4A large division had five teams.
The Huskies had no faults or deductions, Rosa sad. Neither did Gladstone.
“They did such a great job,” Rosa said. “They really pulled it together at the last minute.”
Gladstone had been trailing just behind the Huskies all season, Rosa said. “They were good. They did a really good job. Our routines were similar, so it was just a matter of who was going to execute better.”
Execution includes the cleanliness of the routine, how sharp and synchronized the teams were, Rosa said.
Last week in Salem, the Huskies changed some things.
“We tried to up our difficulty,” Rosa said, but they weren’t successful at it, although they placed first, so they reset their performance for the state competition on Saturday, and it paid off as the girls gave their best performance to date.
In the OCCA championship, Gladstone finished second followed by Klamath Union in third. Five teams participated in the 4A varsity championship.
Competing on the state championship team were juniors Ilima Ka’auwai-Walker, Erin Bauer, Shania Baxter, Ivy Weidner and Jackie Cheshire; sophomores Hannah Graham, Jade Smith, Britney Zook, Ashley Bailey and Julee Cavasos; and freshmen Nicole Grady, Shayla Hunsaker, Shahalie Erickson, Hailey Wolfe and Rylee Vasfaret.
Alternates traveling with the team and ready to compete were Ambert Walton, Jessilyn Thomas and Halley Autry.
The team will graduate no seniors this year.
“It’s awesome that we have such a good head start, to have them this young already competing at this level,” Rosa said.
They still have huge room for improvement, Rosa said, and they will have to. The Huskies’ division keeps getting stronger. She’s seeing stunts throughout the division that she never used to see.
In junior cheer, Sweet Home finished four points ahead of Aloha Youth Cheer, which feeds the OSAA 6A large champion high school, which finished with a score of 186.3. Aloha had just one point deducted, based on a dropped stunt.
Last year, Aloha finished just 1.5 points ahead of Sweet Home.
The Huskies missed the grand champion award by a single point. That went to Westview Youth Cheer Fire, which feeds the OSAA 6A large division high school that finished third with 183.7 points.
Third place went to Tualatin Junior Cheer Black. Tualatin High School finished second in the 6A large division with 183.8 points.
Competing on the junior cheer team were Courtnie Woodard, Brenna Boyd, Kiera Tyree, Abby Hogan, Kelly Ogden, Emma McCubbins, Leaha McQueary, Carlie Morrison, Luka Ogden, Tehya Ely, Shelby Goodwin, Charisma Hardee, Alexis Hunsaker, Kloe Seiber, Megan Glover, Ava Royer, McKenzie Wolfe and Makenzie Claunch.