On Jan. 13 at the Fort Worth Convention Center the cheerleaders became the second group at Cedar Park to become state champions this year. Preparing since the beginning of December, the girls have dedicated countless hours and hard work to get the title of state champion, according to freshman Sydney Manning.

“To prepare we came into cheer everyday with a good mindset hoping to get a lot done for the routines,” Manning said.

For many of the girls, they went into the competition nervous and not knowing what to expect.

“I had never done this before so I was scared I might mess up a motion or forget the cheer,” Manning said. “The whole team was very positive and made me feel a lot better about competing.”

First, they competed in the prelims where they performed their band dance, cheer and fight song. After that, all of the cheer teams waited eagerly to see if they made it to finals, according to junior Rylee Elam.

“Listening to the announcer call out 19 other schools before ours made the anticipation even stronger,” Elam said. “We took the comments that the judge gave us and went straight to changing up our routines.”

They performed their routines one last time at 7:00 p.m. and again waited for the second round of results. The announcer first called out 10th through 2nd place, and then they announced the first place winner, Cedar Park.

“It was such a great feeling knowing we put in so much effort for my last time competing and ending up winning,” senior Jen Stewart said. “I get to leave my team with a win.”

Over the months of practicing every period, being together for numerous hours and constantly working together towards a common goal, many of the girls grew special bonds together, according to junior Baylee Alexander.

“All of the bonds and friendships that were made were amazing,” Alexander said. “I loved the way we came together pushing each other, helping each other out, knowing that we didn’t want to show the judges anything but our best.”