The cheerleading squad has reason to cheer as a result of two recent competitions.

On Nov. 11 they competed at the Blue Valley Southwest Showcase (BVSW). A week later, on Nov. 18, they participated in the KSHSAA Game Day Spirit Competition.

The routine used for BVSW was more for the purpose of presenting how well the team could handle difficult stunts.

“We got a superior rating (the highest) and a specialty award for stunts,” Rachel (Carroll) Jetton, cheer coach, said.

Morgan Johnson and Hailey Lawrence, team captains, created the routine for both the BVSW and KSHSAA competitions.

“I wanted the routine to be different than what we have done in prior years. I tried to incorporate fun new skills in it that appealed to the crowd,” Johnson said. “We did a one-and-a-half up to extension where the flyer spins 540 degrees before hitting the top. We also did a tick tock where the flyer starts with her left leg in the bases hands and switches to her right leg, hitting a liberty.”

Lawrence and Johnson mashed each of their ideas for the routine after they “both worked on separate things to be able for it all to come together,” Lawrence said.

Their next performance for the state level competition housed a total of 92 squads and “18 in our 6A division,” Jetton said. A squad’s division depends on the size of the school; the smallest is 1A and the size goes up to 6A.

KSHSAA was split between preliminary rounds and finals. There were three rounds for prelims and one for finals.

Each preliminary round was a different category of performance, the order of the categories depending on what time of day the performance took place.

The first round for the squad was the Band Dance, which was performed at 1:42 p.m. Next, they performed the Fight Song at 3:15 p.m. Finally, the Crowd Leading performance was at 4:48 p.m.

The squad placed sixth in their division by the end of the preliminary rounds, with a total score of 188.166.

With this score and placement, the squad was able to move on to the final round. Their final performance was at 8:38 p.m., right before the awards ceremony.

Paige Easton, sophomore, said that her least favorite part of the state competition was “waiting for [the] awards.”

They ended up getting fourth place with a score of 83.

“[I] was stressing about all the stunts hitting solid,” Lawrence said. “But it all worked out in the end because everyone did.”