MIDVALE, UT — All day on Sat, Jan. 17, the Hillcrest High School cheer team had USA Regionals and were then in preparation for their state competition taking place on Jan. 21 at UVU College in Orem, UT. The team placed third overall in the 5A Co-Ed division.
At Hillcrest, there are two separate cheer teams. The first is the normal one that consists of everyone who tried out and made the team, and the second is the competition team. There is not anything that determines who is on what team; it is mostly just a matter of interest.
“Last year during tryouts the coaches asked if we wanted to try out for the comp team, and some people said yes and others said no, so it was just the people that really wanted to do it,” stated senior Eva Adamson.
For Regionals, it was just the competition team, whereas State is for everyone. Arriving at the competition, the team was in preparation for the three categories they had to compete in. First was show, second was cheer, and third was dance.
Newcomer to the competition team senior Cooper Runnells states, “It is incredibly hard for a team to make state. Usually only the top three teams at the qualifiers make it to state. Last year our team didn’t make it, but this year we did, and that was a huge accomplishment.”
The first competition at 10:49 a.m. was the show, which the team placed second overall in. Next was the sideline/timeout dance at 12:09 p.m., which the team placed third in. Finally, at 1:58 p.m. was the cheer competition, in which the team placed third overall in the 5A Co-Ed division. The result from this was qualifying for state, which was a massive accomplishment for the team, leaving them to advance.
All of those competitions consisted of the entire team, whereas there were a few that were individual. One of which was the high jump, which Runnells participated in. In this competition, there are certain jumps that you do with something called a hurdler or Herky. They do classical cheer jumps such as toe touches and pikes. “I placed first in the state competition of the jump off, which was super cool,” stated Runnells.
The whole state competition was a huge accomplishment for the Hillcrest cheer team, and they hope that they will continue to keep up the work and be able to qualify again next year.
