COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus East High School’s competition cheer team recently competed in a national competition held at the “most magical place on earth.”
The team performed at the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida and made it to the semifinals for their division. The team arrived in Florida on Feb. 9 and returned to Columbus on Feb. 13.
Head Coach Hannah Moore said this was their first time attending nationals.
“They did amazing,” she said. “Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect, because we hadn’t ever been to this national competition before, and I knew there were a lot of amazing teams that were going. And for us to make it semifinals, we were very excited because of the talent from the other teams and just not knowing — we went there, and we were able to compete with those teams.”
Thirty four teams competed in the Medium Varsity Division I Game Day preliminaries. The first place teams from the Group A and Group B prelims automatically advanced to finals, and an additional 15 teams from the prelims advanced to semifinals, including East.
According to Moore, the championships were hosted by Varsity Spirit, the UCA and Disney World. A total of 1,125 teams from 33 states competed across all divisions.
