Not finishing high enough in order to continue on to the regional competition, varsity cheer placed seventh out of eight at the district competition on Oct. 26.
The team only finished ahead of the McLean High School cheerleading team, but would have needed to finish in the top four teams in order to qualify for regional competition.
Coach Kelly Bresnahan was ?extremely happy? with the team?s placement. She said that Marshall?s 12-person team competed against larger teams that had up to 20 members.
According to junior Victoria Bermudez, larger teams are at an advantage because they can have a full set of tumblers, as opposed to the limited number of tumblers Marshall works with. ?I think we did really [well] for how many girls we have,? she said.
?Honestly, I was a bit nervous [about districts] because of injuries,? Bresnahan said. According to Bresnahan, sophomore Sydney Sheldon had been out due an injury and was worked back into the routine quickly before districts. ?We only had one day to practice the full routine.?
Sheldon?s return impacted the districts competition, according to sophomore Haley Holder.
?I think that [the performance] was way better due to the fact that everyone was there,? Holder said of the whole team being available to compete in district competition.
?Honestly, I thought we did our very best,? junior Abby Hodges said of districts.
According to Hodges, the team could improve its placement at next year?s districts competition.
Holder was glad to have the opportunity to practice at an earlier, non-qualifying competition.
?I think that the first competition we went to was a good practice for the final but wasn?t as good, obviously because of the lack of a flyer and also due to the fact that a majority of our team had never been in a competition before,? she said.