Penn State cheerleading helped make program history at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National Championships. The cheer squad placed third in both D1A SMALL COED Game Day and Traditional. With the Lionettes placing seventh in Pom and 10th in Jazz and the Nittany Lion coming in eighth for mascot, Penn State was one of six universities that placed in the top 10 in cheer, dance, and mascot.
The UCA Nationals is the competition for top cheer teams across the United States. This year, it was held from January 16 through 18 and occurs yearly at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
“I don’t think everyone realizes how much work we actually put into the routine we’re going to compete with, especially with there being two routines,” senior Gavin Heist said. “Allocating practice time to both of those is a lot. In the fall, we do four days a week of practices, and then leading up to nationals, we do two practices a day for a couple of weeks right before we compete.”
Not every university competes at the UCA nationals because of the level of competitiveness the competition takes. This year, the cheer squad has a special set of obstacles to overcome to compete their very best at nationals.
“There was a whole element of the College Football Playoff this year. That was a unique challenge that we weren’t really expecting,” Heist said. “Normally, we would be practicing pretty much the entire time we had to be there, but instead we had a quick turnaround, flying to Arizona, coming back, practicing for a few days, and then turning right back around and going to Miami for the Orange Bowl as well. People might not realize some of the sacrifices we have to make. In terms of our winter break, I know me personally, I was only home for six days over Christmas.”
On top of football, the cheer squad also attends other sports events and still has to balance their academics.
“[Balancing everything] was very difficult at times because we practiced four days a week — sometimes five — while doing events like football games and traveling for the playoff games,” said senior Sy’raia Maney. “It was a lot to handle, but we always knew to do our schoolwork during the day, and when we’re at practice we’re focusing on practice, not things outside of practice.”
The team first competed in Game Day the first day of the competition, in both the semifinals and the finals.
