Baldwin spirit squad caps season at UCA nationals

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, February 23, 2018 | 11:48 PM

It started out as a rebuilding season.

It ended up being anything but that.

Baldwin's competitive cheer team capped its 2017-18 season with a trip to the UCA nationals in Orlando.

The Highlanders have qualified for the national competition every year since 2013.

A team must attend a UCA qualifying competition and receive a qualifying score to be invited to attend the national event. Baldwin received its bid to nationals at a regional competition held in Centerville, Ohio.

“Since tryouts, the girls and team have grown tremendously,” said Dena Mihalsky, a co-coach at Baldwin along with Taryn Madden. “At the end of last season, we lost seniors that were very experienced and able to execute skills with a high level of difficulty with ease.

“Originally, we anticipated this would be a rebuilding year, but the team proved us wrong. It took us a few months, but the girls began working together and with a lot of practice time the team was able to exceed the level of difficulty we were able to execute in last season's routines.”

The Highlanders advanced to the semifinal round at nationals, thanks mainly to the mat team's highest score all season.

Mat competition involves tumbling and stunts, while game day competition involves more of the cheering that is seen on the sidelines of sporting events.

Baldwin's mat team competed in the large varsity/division 2; the game day team competed in the super large varsity division.

“Our team hit all of their stunts for the first time this year,” Madden said. “Although we achieved our goal of improving our scores from last year, the competition was at a higher level this year so we were unable to increase our rankings and advance to the final round.”

The National High School Cheerleading Championship took place Feb. 10-11 at Walt Disney World. It was televised on ESPN and ESPN2.

“Both our mat and game day teams had fantastic prelim performances,” Mihalsky said. “Our mat team was ranked second in the preliminary round and advanced on to the semifinal round. Our game day team tied for 11th.

“Although neither team advanced to the final round, we achieved our team goals of hitting two clean routines to end our season while at nationals. We couldn't possibly be prouder of what our young team has achieved this season, and cannot wait to see what the future holds.”

Prior to the trip to the Sunshine State, Baldwin finished second in Class AAA and took first place in the medium varsity division at the WPIAL competitive spirit championships. The Highlanders have displayed improvement annually at the WPIAL contest, and have qualified for the state finals for the past four years.

Four girls instrumental to the Highlanders success over the past four years are seniors Kaitlyn Joyce, Sarah Dempsey, Leila Crawford and Emma Hampsay.

Joyce, Dempsey and Crawford served as co-captains of the competitive squad this season; Hampsay is a varsity team captain.

“We put out three amazing routines, our first one being the absolute best we have done all season,” Joyce said. “We met each of our goals for the season at nationals, and it was so awesome to see all of our hard work throughout the season pay off.

“One of the highlights was definitely the first routine we put out in the preliminary round of the mat competition, because we did so good and hit all of our skills. We also had a lot of fun competing in the new arena built at ESPN Wide World of Sports for our game day competition. The trip as a whole was very successful and a great way for us to spend our very last competition of the season.”

Added Madden, “We went to all the parks in between competition time and had a great time celebrating our amazing season.”

There were only three juniors — Erin Winkowski, Carly Utzig and Hannah Barker — on the squad this season.

“Overall, we had our best routines at nationals and achieved the goal we were originally were looking for,” Winkowski said. “We had a lot of seniors leave last year which made it difficult to make progress at the beginning of the year, but at the end of our season we made a major improvement.”

Winkowski, who has been a Baldwin cheerleader for three years, said one of the highlights of the trip outside the competition was a particular morning meal.

“We got to go to most of the parks,” she said, “including a breakfast with Mickey and Minnie.”

The Highlanders' trip itinerary included stops a Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

“We visited the Disney parks to go on rides,” Joyce said, “which was so much fun since all of us on the team are like best friends on the team.”

Rounding out this year's squad were sophomores Kathy Nguyen, Grace Vavro, Olivia Lucas, Olivia Kniola, Olivia Rossa, Sophia Cavatio, Paige Young, Erin Fader, Alaina Wodarek, twins Abby Zuder and Emma Zuder; plus freshmen Sydney Smarsh, Taylor Mincin, Christianna Martinez and Grace Hampton.

Baldwin's competitive cheer team's season begins with tryouts in April, followed by open gym practices in June and July. Choreography planning sessions take place in August. Competitions start in October, and the season ends after nationals in February.

“We were able to spend our last few days of the season in Florida celebrating the successful year that we have had,” Mihalsky said. “We are already preparing for next season. We have tryout dates set in place, and have reached out to a choreographer to schedule our session for the 2018-19 season.

“As always, our goal is to reach or exceed the level of accomplishments from the previous season, and we can't wait to get back in the gym to begin working towards that goal.”

In-season, the Highlanders practice twice per week in three-hour sessions.

“We are graduating four seniors off the competition squad,” Madden said, “so we are eager for next season to begin so we can continue to improve in all areas to get back into the finals next year.”

Winkowski, who along with Young, Wodarek and the Zuder twins also are members of the Baldwin gymnastics program, already is looking forward to next season.

“Since there aren't a lot of seniors leaving this year, I think next year is going to have a lot of progress because we won't have to start from scratch,” Winkowski said. “I'm excited for next year.”

Ray Fisher is a freelance writer.

Tags: Baldwin