The Canyon Lake Middle School Cheer, Song and Dance teams competed for the first time at the Sharp International Azusa Pacific University Fan Fest on January 16 and brought home Grand Champion trophies for cheer and dance.
According to Cheer Coach Tammy Howard, CLMS competes at a Sharp competition every year and usually goes to a local Hemet competition. This year they wanted to try a new, larger venue and compete against teams with whom they’ve never competed.
Cheer entered three categories: Group Cheer, Stunt Group and a Cheer Duet. Tammy says, “All three routines placed first. The group cheer also won the overall junior high cheer category as well as one of the huge Grand Champion trophies and a banner!”
The Cheer Duet consisted of cheer captains Alex Mortesen and Sienna Pankratz. The Stunt Group members are Sophia Colson, Alex Mortesen, Sienna Pankratz and Sydney Cook.
Dance entered 15 dances, which included 10 group dances, a song routine and five solos. Song brought home a 1st place trophy, and all of the group dances brought home 1st place trophies.
For solos, 1st place, Courtney Verne: 2nd, Jayden Williams; 3rd, Kaylee Pasqualetto; 4th, Amanda Luna; and 5th, Jade Phipps.
All these finishes helped Dance bring home a huge Grand Champion trophy too.
Tammy says, “The fun part of the competition is the specialty events! Cheerleaders and dancers can enter best toe touches, best tumbling, best stunt group, best turns, best leaps, best kicks and drill down. These specialty events are broken down by age and each category averages more than 20 entrants. We had many girls enter, and CLMS dominated the specialty events, earning 25 medals!”
Individual winners were:
Best touches: 1st place, Emma Lewis and Allison Brockie; 2nd place, Zoie VonMoos and Courtney Verne; 3rd place, Serwaa Asafu-Adjaye and Zoie VonMoos.
Best tumbling: 1st place, Sophia Colson; 2nd place, Allison Brockie.
Best stunt group: 1st place, Sophia Colson, Alex Mortesen, Sydney Cook and Stephanie Maxwell.
Best turns: 1st place, Courtney Verne and Tori Quinn; 2nd place, Jade Phipps; 3rd place, Karissa Bennett.
Best kicks: 1st place, Allison Brockie and Jade Phipps; 2nd place, Tori Quinn and Courtney Verne.
Best leaps: 1st place, Jade Phipps and Allison Brockie; 2nd place, Tori Quinn and Serwaa Asafu-Adjaye; 3rd place, Maddy Dixon
The girls will be performing at at the Sunbelt League Cheer and Song Championships at Temescal Canyon High School on February 21, and at the USA Jr. Nationals on February 28.
CLMS parents are encouraged to check the Canyon Lake Middle School website for more events, activities and updates: clm.leusd.k12.ca.us.
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