The competitive cheer team woke up bright and early Saturday Nov. 1 to spend the day at the Iowa State Fairgrounds for the State Cheer Championship. The varsity competition team ended up fifth out of 16 Iowa teams and time-out team got third out of 10 teams. However, the individual stunt group got disqualified because of an illegal move performed.

After the results came in about the disqualification, junior Sage Hassel was apart of the frustrated group. “I was mad because we just put so many hours into practice every day and it all went to waste,” she said. Another school competed with the same move however did not take a penalty for the performance.

The stunt team practiced every day after school from two to three hours and were expecting to do well during state.

“It sucks knowing that we could of placed higher,” Hassel said. She and the others received compliments on their routine and thought they were the best causing more disappointment. Their three coaches were supportive through the incident and gave them the reassurance that they had next year to make a comeback.

Junior Lauren Brueckner is a part of the varsity squad and thought the team competed pretty well in their routine but still needed a bit of work. “Our skill level is definitely up there so if we can just clean it up I think we can do better,” she said.

The varsity competition team will be heading off to Nationals in Dallas, Texas this coming January.