Home crowd fuels Colonels' berth in sate cthampionships

WINCHESTER — James Wood’s cheerleading team took advantage of a boisterous home crowd to earn a Class 4 state berth by placing second in Wednesday’s Region 4C competition at Shirley Gymnasium.

Riverside captured the title in the eight-team field, where Sherando and Millbrook were among the four teams to advance to the second round. Riverside and James Wood advanced to the state championship at Virginia Commonwealth University on Nov. 3.

“This is the first time we’ve been to state in two years,” Colonels coach Wendy DeMaio said. “We’ve pushed this team very hard since July and they’ve worked very hard for this. The home crowd really helped. Our fans were just amazing and really helped out our girls. It was wonderful to see our football team here and cheering with us.”

The Colonels were ecstatic with the results.

“It was a feeling like no other to compete in this meet,” senior Lauren Taylor said. “We really put our hearts into this. I couldn’t have asked for a better team to go out there and perform with.”

Riverside won with solid performances in both the opening round (232) and the finals (237). James Wood finished second in both rounds with scores of 227 and 231.5.

“We came out for the second round and really hit everything perfectly,” Riverside coach Elizabeth Means said. “Now it’s on to states and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Sherando and Millbrook tied for third in the final round with a score of 228.5. The Warriors received third place thanks to the tiebreaker procedure in which the two judges scores which are thrown out are added and the one with the highest score gets the higher placing. The two dropped scores for the Warriors added up to 153, while the Pioneers had a 152.

Each of the contestants were required to perform cheers usually associated with cheerleading at an athletic event as well as a dance routine that featured skills in tumbling.

The excitement of the competition was enhanced by the capacity crowd, and all three local schools got a big boost from fans that joined in the cheers with their respective teams. Wood easily had the largest contingent and it paid off.

“I really couldn’t have asked for anything better than to compete with this team on our home court,” Wood senior Keilena Burch said. “I knew we were ready and could do what we needed to do to get to state. This was just amazing.”

For Sherando, which has a young team, it was an opportunity to test its skills against the best teams in Northern Virginia and the Warriors didn’t disappoint.

“I thought this was a heck of a competition,” Sherando coach Tom Grim said. “Everyone really performed well. I think that the scores were right on the mark and the teams that are going to state deserve to be there. We were a long shot going in but we really performed well. We’ve come a long way this year.”

Backed by supportive fans Sherando (219) nipped Liberty (218.5) by just a half point to qualify for the finals.

“I’m a senior and I’m sad because this is my last competition with this team,” Sherando’s Mercedes Ardinger said. “But I’m really happy that we were able to make the second round.”

Millbrook’s team had, perhaps, the most difficult routine of the eight teams involved and was third (224) after the opening round.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Pioneers coach Dawnette Jones said. “We put together a really difficult routine and included a lot of very difficult skills. It’s going to be difficult to recover from this, particularly for the seniors. I’m still very proud of this team. They executed their routine very well.”

“I thought that we really did a good job of performing our routine,” Millbrook senior Danielle Orth said. “After being involved with cheerleading for four years at Millbrook High School this is the hardest working team I’ve ever been associated with. I thought they we did our best and did everything we could. It just didn’t work out.”

Heritage with (217.5), Loudoun County (204) and Dominion (178.5) were also eliminated after the first round.

James Wood led the area teams with four first team all-regional selections. Taylor was joined by Madeline Walker, Kassi Culp and Kelsey Beard. Ardinger, Grace Ridings, and Hannah Craig were Sherando selections, while Sarah Purdy, Lexi Himelright and Molly Johnson made the team for Millbrook.

Danielle Ritter, Keilena Burch, Blake Gonzalez and Alexsandra Smith were second team selections for the Colonels. Kylynn Whitt, Alli Bodenschatz and Eryn Broccolo made that team for the Warriors, while Ellie Deegan, Madison Chandler and Madison Clark made the squad for the Pioneers.

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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