After placing eighth in 2006, the varsity cheer squad hoped to finish in the top five. The squad practiced their routine for six months and performed at three competitions before Nationals. The girls refocused their energy after placing second at Whittier on Dec. 2.

They placed seventh in the Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders National Competition in Florida on Jan. 3-7.

The girls completed a seemingly flawless routine in the preliminaries and felt confident about their chances in the finals. However, while trying to get sleep, coaches Katie Mendenhall and Eunie McEntee called a midnight meeting to completely rework their routine.

?When we got our scores back from the preliminaries, we weren?t happy with how the judges scored us,? Mendenhall said. ?We talked about it and decided to put Lindsay (Bolduc, ?09) in. She had come all that way, and with her tumbling and skills as a base, we had nothing to lose. The other girls adapted to the changes very well.?

Although their revised routine remained similar in choreography, Mendenhall added tumbling.

?At first I was really worried,? Bolduc said, ?but because I?m the alternate, I already knew the routine, we mostly had to add the tumbling. The whole practice was so exciting, and filled with momentum.?

The two-hour practice may have deprived them of sleep, but this helped them improve by two places in the overall standings.

?Although tired, we were so into it,? Sasha Arroyo, ?07, said. ?We all got an adrenaline rush, and wanted to push to the end to achieve our goal. Lindsay really stepped it up, and we were so proud of her.?

After the squad executed a flawless routine, they waited in anticipation for the results to be announced. They felt a bit disappointed when informed they had finished seventh.

?Due to the girls? perfect performance, we felt the scoring did not reflect how well we did,? Mendenhall said. ?Two teams finished ahead of us that dropped people and we did not, and we were not happy about that. The girls didn’t fall or falter and the routine was solid and steady.?

The cheer squad still prepares for future competitions, including the Clovis Pep Classic at Clovis High School on Jan. 27. They will also compete on Feb. 10 in the FCC West Coast Championships in Anaheim and in the Clovis West Showcase on March 10.

“We feel very good about our chances in the upcoming competitions,” Whitney Stipe, ’08, said. “We practice really hard and long, and look forward to challenging the opposition.”