COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Missouri Baptist University competitive cheer team closed out its regular season with the Cougar Classic hosted by Columbia College this past weekend. The Spartans came away with a second-place finish in ramping up for postseason next month.

MBU Coed Cheer put forward a near-perfectly executed routine but saw its difficulty lowered by the group of judges, resulting in a final score of 81.36. With just one 0.25-point reduction for a stunt fall, the Spartans otherwise had a clean routine. They placed second out of five teams, falling only to NAIA No. 5-ranked University of Saint Mary (93.86), and finished ahead of William Woods (75.98), William Penn (69.18), and Columbia (56.30).

This weekend, senior Sophia Welch leveled up her tumbling and maxed out the running tumbling score to 5 points. She was rewarded for her performance by the American Midwest Conference with Tumbler of the Week, her second AMC Cheer Athlete of the Week designation this season.

The roster for the Cougar Classic consisted of seniors Kayla Martinez, Sophia Welch, and Dalton Mesey, juniors Cylin Akins, Joey Barker, and Kiley Roth, wo was added to the roster for the first time this season, sophomore Vashti Altheide, and freshmen Avery Bartok and Isabella Martinez.

Spartan Cheer turns its attention to the postseason in March with the NAIA Qualifying Tournament featuring teams from the American Midwest Conference and Sooner Athletic Conference. The tournament will be hosted on March 16 at Missouri Baptist in the Carl & Deloris Petty SRC.