The Keene State cheerleading team hit zero at the NCA Nationals this week in Daytona, Fla.
As a member of the team, I can say the season was difficult, but it made this competition mean so much more. The team left Keene at 2 a.m. Tuesday morning to get to Bradley International Airport for our 6 a.m. flight. Wednesday a practice day, with the competition taking place on Thursday and Friday. Senior captain Alyssa Desrosiers said out of all the competitions she has competed in during her cheer career, this competition is the biggest.
During day one of competition, the team had a strong performance, only getting 0.5 in deductions. KSC ended the day in seventh place. After receiving the score sheets, the team decided that they needed to up the difficulty in routine, so they practiced on upgrades out on the grass in front of the hotel.
Senior Liana Kenney said she was surprised and disappointed because she felt like their performance was better than the score sheet portrayed it. Day two started with another team practice to work on upgrades. The team upgraded their second stunt sequence by adding a half turn to the switch up, in the pyramid a flip called a waterfall was added, and another tumbler was added to running tumbling. At competition, the team hit , meaning they had a zerodeduction routine. That feeling of hitting a zerodeduction routine, according to Coach Gillian Lawrence, is the feeling you are chasing every time you get on the mat. After both days of competition, the team finished seventh in their division.
The team has navigated several obstacles this season to get to competition, including starting strong with 20 girls and seeing the numbers slowly dwindling because of injuries and other reasons. The routine changed several times leading to the competition, including the changes made before the second day of the competition. Desrosiers said the season has been more difficult than other seasons, but she is proud to be a captain of this team.
Ashley Baessler can be contacted
at ashley.baessler@keene.edu
