MARION, Ind. – Rounding out a three-weekend stretch of tournaments for Missouri Baptist University Coed Cheer was a trip to the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcat Cheer Invite. The Spartans stayed consistent over the weekend, placing fifth of 10 in Session 1, eighth of 15 teams in Session 2, and fourth of 11 in the third and final session.
The high-level competition along with MBU included Concordia University (Mich.), University of the Cumberlands, Indiana Wesleyan and Marian, all top-15 programs.
The first session found MBU in fifth place behind the aforementioned programs. Their routine jumped in difficulty with them putting out 4-5 point difficulty in every category for the first time in five years, with the addition of junior
Sydney McGhee and an uptick in difficulty for senior
Sophia Welch's baskets. Despite a few deductions, which many high-level routines do, the Spartans scored 83.98.
Day Two brought a bit of a scare, as a flare of a previous injury forced McGhee out of competition the rest of the weekend. Luckily, this setback gave them the opportunity to return to their eight-person routine that they have scored well with in the past.
Session 2 was an unfortunate routine for the team, as they took some major deductions on two building falls that also dropped execution scores to low to mid twos. This resulted in their lowest score of the season, with an 81.07. Their spirits remained high looking to session three for a bounce back.
Bounce back is exactly what the Spartan cheer squad did, posting a nearly perfect routine, aside from one tumbling fall. Their energy was higher than ever, something the judges mentioned in previous routines, resulting in their competition high 84.32. This gave them a fourth-place finish in Session Three.
Coed Cheer's roster for the Wildcat Cheer Invite consisted of freshmen
Avery Bartok and
Isabella Martinez, sophomore
Vashti Altheide, juniors
Cylin Akins,
Joey Barker, and
Sydney McGhee, and seniors
Kayla Martinez,
Dalton Mesey, and
Sophia Welch.
For her performance at the Wildcat Invite,
Sophia Welch was named American Midwest Conference Stunter of the Week. It marks the third week in a row that a Spartan has earned an AMC weekly honor with
Kayla Martinez and
Cylin Akins sweeping last week's Cheer awards, and
Joey Barker earning Tumbler of the Week for the first-ever award period.
February 23 is the last regular season competition for COED Cheer, as they trek to Columbia, Mo. for the Cougar Classic.
