STATE CHEERLEADING CHAMPIONSHIPS
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Medium division champion Radford psyched itself up before doing its routine yesterday.
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Cheers for Kamehameha, Radford
After the University of Hawaii's BCS dreams became a reality for the Warriors, the hard work of a season came to fruition as two high school cheerleading squads were named state champions.
In the large division, Kamehameha Schools regained the state crown by earning 351.5 points out of 375, the highest of either division.
Radford took the medium division with ease for its third straight title.
The Warriors had won four consecutive large division state crowns until last season, when Mililani took it. This year, the Trojans placed a distant second, earning 301.5 points, followed by Kailua with 279.5 points.
"After last year it gave us motivation to work harder and to want it even more," Kamehameha senior Erika Castro said. "The routine went really well, and we just put all of our hearts into it and just hit it as hard as we could."
Kamehameha co-head coaches Dolly Wong and Melissa Beimes implemented a stringent training program to prepare the athletes for their season. According to Wong, she wanted the squad to do one of the most difficult routines it has ever done to prepare for the upcoming televised cheerleading nationals.
"This is the second part of what we are doing. We won the ILH and now we have won state and next up are the nationals in February," Beimes said.
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kamehameha won the large division at the state cheerleading championships yesterday at the Stan Sherrif Center.
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Moanalua finished second in the medium division with 326 points and Baldwin placed third with 322.5. The Rams were one of the youngest teams in the tournament, featuring four freshmen and three sophomores. Radford coach Bo Frank said he implemented a routine with a high level of difficulty and tried to get the highest score possible in each category.
"We worked hard this week to hit our middle stunt sequence and they pulled it off," Frank said. "All the level of difficulty has gone up from all the teams, but we really pushed the limit to try to max out the score sheet."
The state tournament began at noon and lasted until 2 p.m. A brief intermission was taken for the BCS show, during which Hawaii learned it would play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Although it was a slight inconvenience for the tournament, the cheerleaders and the coordinators seemed to take the situation in stride.
"Today was an historical moment for the University of Hawaii and we are privileged that they allowed us to come into the facility," co-coordinator Erika Buder-Nakasone said. "We had to adjust the schedule and push it up 2 hours, but everything went well for the cheerleaders. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we talked to a lot of them and they were excited about it."