Crestwood Cheerleaders compete
Fri, 11/25/2022 - 3:48pm
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CRESCO - This year, the cheerleading competition squad consisted of select football cheerleaders.
The team participated at three competitions — the Spartan Challenge at the University of Dubuque; the Triton Challenge at Iowa Central Community College; and the Iowa State Cheerleading Championships. They placed sixth at Spartan, fifth at Triton and 14th at State.
Coach Kalley Cunningham noted, “We didn’t go into the year expecting to compete, but after summer practices and camp, we thought our team was up for the challenge. It’s been years since Crestwood has competed. None of the girls who participated this year have competed in the past, and some of them were brand new to high school cheerleading.”
The competition squad consists of seniors LillyAnn Bartling, Emily Bjugan-Hanson, Grace Prochaska, Olivia St. Mary and Mazie Stockman-Koster and freshmen Piper Jessen and Alyssa Nelson. The football squad had two additional members, Joe Kammerer (junior) and MaKiah Pierce (sophomore).
“I became Head Coach of the cheerleading program just over a year ago and started with the winter season. Maia Harvey joined me shortly thereafter as an assistant. We were both cheerleaders at Crestwood, although 10 years apart,” Coach Kalley Cunningham smiled. Harvey continued on to cheer at Kirkwood Community College after high school.
The competition routine was choreographed by both coaches. “We took inspiration from past routines that we’ve done and what we’ve seen other teams do in previous competitions. We also study the score sheets that judges use at competitions in order to choreograph a routine that contains all of the skills the judges expect to see.
“There was a lot of trial and error and changes made to end up with the final routine. We also took judges’ comments from the early competitions into consideration as we got ready to face the next competition.
“While the core of our routine remained the same, it was always evolving and improving in order to maximize the chances of scoring higher at competition. Our squad was very good about keeping up with all of the changes and overcoming setbacks as we prepared for competition.”
If you are a fan and would like to see the latest from Crestwood Cheerleading or would be interested in trying out in the future, you can find the group on Facebook — Crestwood Cheerleading; Instagram — crestwood_cheerleading; or TikTok — crestwood _cheerleading.
