Competitive Cheerleading 3/11/2017 5:51:00 PM

OCU WINS FIRST EVER NAIA CHEER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Stars garner 63rd national championship in school history

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma City University took home the first NAIA Competitive Cheer National Championship in history Saturday at Abe Lemons Arena with a final score of 87.08.
The Stars won the event by 4.15 points over the second-place finisher Saint Francis (Ind.) and garnered the 63rd national championship in school history across all sports for Oklahoma City. These championships were the first where the NAIA became the first national intercollegiate sports entity to fully sponsor competitive cheerleading and pom.
After a preliminary round score of 89.37, OCU followed it up with an 86.32 in the final round to take home the victory.
The Stars' pom squad finished in fifth place in the dance competition with a final tally of 84.30, 7.08 points behind Midland (Neb.), who won the title with a score of 91.38.
Both cheer and dance scores are tabulated by taking both the preliminary round score (25 percent of final total) and the final-round score (75 percent of final total).
OCU recorded the top score of any cheer team in both days of competition and received 2.75 points in deductions.
"Obviously I was very pleased with our team's performance," OCU head cheer coach Alicia Bailey said. "We're very excited to win the first ever NAIA national championship. It makes it even that much sweeter that it's at home in front of our friends and family. The kids put a lot of work in this year, and everything paid off today."
Oklahoma City scored extremely well in multiple categories, including overall difficulty where they received scores of nine, nine and 8.9 from each of the judges, respectively. Before deductions, OCU had a team score of 89.07.
In 10 categories of competition (all out of a possible 10 points), the Stars did not receive a score lower than 8.3.
"We finally have recognition for our hard work and our athletes," Bailey said. "We've always known that our sport was athletic and it's exciting to be recognized like all the other sports."
In the dance competition, the Oklahoma City pom squad recorded a final-round score of 84.52 after a preliminary round tally of 83.65.
The Stars finished just 2.32 points behind second place finisher Aquinas (Mich.) and finished with a judges score of 84.52 before 0.5 was taken away in deductions.
"I was very pleased with our performance today," Oklahoma City pom head coach Tasha Hinex said. "We knew the level of competition would be very high today, and I thought our team stepped up to the challenge."
OCU performed well in the category of staging transitions, receiving nines from each of the three judges.
The Stars pom squad has just one senior on the team and hopes to build on this performance next season.
"They're already ready for next year," Hinex said. "We've been telling them about the level of competition that was going to be at this event, and I think now that they've seen it they know what to strive to beat next year."
The cheer national title is the first team title of the 2016-17 season for Oklahoma City.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
DANCE
1. Midland (Neb.), 91.38
2. Aquinas (Mich.), 86.63
3. Baker (Kan.), 85.78
4. St. Ambrose (Iowa), 85.16
5. Oklahoma City, 84.30
6. Morningside (Iowa), 84.23
7. Grand View (Iowa), 82.46
8. Siena Heights (Mich.), 76.40
9. Missouri Baptist, 76.18
10. Central Methodist (Mo.), 72.65
11. Stephens (Mo.), 70.00
12. Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.), 62.92

CHEERLEADING
1. Oklahoma City, 87.08
2. Saint Francis (Ind.), 82.93
3. Davenport (Mich.), 80.97
4. Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.), 74.82
5. Concordia (Mich.), 74.11
6. St. Ambrose (Iowa), 73.48
7. Missouri Valley, 73.33
8. Lourdes (Ohio), 72.77
9. St. Gregory's (Okla.), 72.59
10. Bethel (Kan.), 69.58
11. MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), 64.93
12. Indiana Wesleyan, 64.48

NAIA Cheer Coach of the Year: Kate Edge, Concordia (Mich.)
NAIA Dance Coach of the Year: Trish Ryan, Midland (Neb.)

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