Wildcat cheer 2nd at state

The Oak Harbor High School cheerleaders finished in second place at Saturday’s WIAA/Dairy Farmers of Washington/Les Schwab Tire state championships held at Comcast Arena in Everett.

Competing in the combined medium/large/super large coed division, the Wildcats scored 229 points to finish behind Heritage High School from Vancouver. Heritage had a near-perfect performance earning 270 points out of a possible 300.

The Cats were the first team to take the floor in their division, performing a high-energy routine, sticking all their stunts and tumbling passes.

Comments from the judges included: “Strong partner stunts,” “great incorporation of single basing stunts in your pyramids,” “stunts flow with routine nicely,” “excellent crowdleading,” “great voices,” “solid tuck tumbling,” and “very fun, strong, routine.”

Oak Harbor Coach Pam Headridge said Heritage had more boys on its team and more people, which led to an overall more difficult performance routine.

“We also had some timing and height issues with our jumps and tosses,” she said. “We did not bring home the first place trophy, but I am still very proud of our Wildcat cheerleaders.”

Headridge said Oak Harbor has a very young team with 14 cheerleaders out of 24 new to competition arena this year, including all of the boys.

“They performed a very difficult routine that impressed both the fans and judges, scoring 229 out of 300,” she said.

Out of 51 teams entered in competition at the state championships, Oak Harbor recorded the eighth highest score.

Other highlights of the day were Lauren Aguirre, a junior at Oak Harbor High School, who sang the National Anthem; and also the Oak Harbor team exhibited a new state division of cheer competition called “Crowdleading.”

This year’s team is composed of: Meghan Rikard, TracyAnne Vessels, Cassie Gianino, Jessie Gulizia, Lauren Aguirre, Beckie White, Lindsey Vessels, Kasey Roberts, Willysha Shaw, Bri Peterson, Dejon Pruitt, Joe Pogacsas, Briana Sokoloski, Shani King, Courtney Tuttle, Josh Higbee, Ashley Bass, Kaylee Meders, Stephen Lewis, Rebekah Nickerson, Jessica Larson, Jacob Moody, Cailey Bolander, and Emily Hoyt. Also added to the Crowdleading team were Jessica Foster, Jaime Mason and Holly Hernandez.

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