02/22/08
Collins Center was packed for the Heart of America Athletic Conference dance and cheerleading competition, and even though the event was Saturday, confusion about who the overall winner was wasn’t settled until Wednesday.
“We had a great turnout, and (cheerleading co-captain) Allyssa King did a tremendous job helping out and organizing everything,” head coach Cathy Ritter said.
Lindenwood University was declared the overall conference winner, but there was a scoring error as the Lions received 100.66 points and can only receive up to 100 points. Although this did not affect Baker’s ranking, it did change the overall standings.
After reviewing and recounting the scores, Avila University was declared the overall winner by a very close margin of about two points. Several factors were involved including penalty points that were not initially included in the scoring and miscalculations by the scorekeepers. Lindenwood finished second overall.
The Wildcats placed fourth overall behind Avila, Lindenwood and Benedictine College, which came in third.
“It went really well, and I’m proud of all of the dance team and cheer team members,” dance co-captain Erin Edwards said. “Getting fourth overall was a good surprise.”
Baker participated in four of the six possible events: the all-girl cheer, mascot, small dance and hip-hop dance competitions. The two other events included the coed cheer and the large dance competitions.
The cheer team placed third out of six teams behind Avila, who won the event, and Lindenwood in the all-girl cheer. The dance team received Baker’s other third place ranking of the day in the small dance competition. Benedictine won the event and William Jewell College came in second.
Ritter said Lindenwood and Avila are the “big guys” and are very tough competition, but Baker did well and ranked with them. She said one of the judges in both the all-girl cheer and the small dance competitions even gave Baker higher scores than the teams who placed first and second in both events.
This is the first time Baker’s dance team placed in the four years Ritter has coached. The small dance and all-girl cheer competitions were very close, with the difference between the top teams being between two to three points.
Lindenwood won the mascot event, which was one of three first-place finishes for the Lions, Avila came in second and Benedictine finished third. The Lions also won the hip-hop event ahead of Avila and Missouri Valley College. The hip-hop event had the most competition with seven participating teams while most events had six teams.
Only three teams competed in the coed cheer with Evangel University placing first, Lindenwood second and William Jewell third. There were just three teams in the large dance competition and Lindenwood won the event followed by Avila and Benedictine.
Due to numerous injuries on the cheerleading squad, dance team members Edwards, sophomore Katie Sellers and senior Susan Chandler helped out by cheering and dancing Saturday. Some cheerleaders also participated in the hip-hop dance.
“It made it that much better, and also that much harder, for those who were injured, having being placed and them not being able to participate,” cheerleading co-captain Brittany Lob said.
The dance team is planning to go to nationals in Daytona Beach, Fla., April 6-9. The cheer squad was still unsure whether it would also be attending, but Lob said the team would be having a meeting next week to discuss it.