By Ally Hansen, Staff Writer
The cheer and pom squads and Starsky are heading to Nationals this week in search of national titles.
OCU has made it to a national championship final every year since the program began, making this OCU’s fifth appearance.
The OCU spirit squads have six chances for national championships.
Pom will compete in the NAIA large dance competition and division two hip hop competition.
Cheer will compete in the NAIA all-women competition and the coed competition.
OCU will also compete
in the new STUNT competition.
“We’re looking for a sweep,” head coach Brandy Corcoran said.
Last year, the cheer team won two NAIA national championship titles for large coed team and all-women team. The all-women team also placed second in the newly developed STUNT competition.
The newest addition to the competition is STUNT. Rather than a tournament-style finals, only two teams in the nation make it to the STUNT finals. This year, the squad will compete against UCO.
STUNT finals take place in four quarters. Both teams learn the same choreography for the first three competitions. This helps level the teams. The fourth quarter can vary.
The teams start learning the national routines in November. Then, the teams compete in February for the NAIA tournaments. After more work, and some revamped choreography, they are ready for nationals in April.
National competition will take place in Daytona Beach, Fla. The teams leave today. Preliminaries will take place tomorrow, finals will be on Friday, and the mascot and STUNT competitions will be on Saturday.
“I think all three teams have a really good chance at winning,” said Brianna Then, early childhood education junior. “The hard work and dedication that everyone has put into this season makes me feel like we’ll be coming home with multiple banners.”
Leave a Reply