2024 RRHS Spirit Rally: Rams win on home turf

RIO RANCHO — The 2024 Rio Rancho High School Spirit Rally brought tons of cheer squads to the RRHS gymnasium Nov. 23.

“It never gets old, especially being at home. Competing in general, there is no feeling like it,” RRHS cheerleader Miquela Yardman said. Yardman, a flyer on the team, has been on varsity for four years.

At the end of the day, the RRHS cheer squad came out on top as they earned first place in the “Varsity 5A” category with 194.3 points.

“We have practices every day for, like, two to three hours; sometimes on Fridays it’s like 3 1/2. We just go over reps, over and over again. Same routine just makes it perfect,” said RRHS cheerleader Madison Pitts, a secondary base.

Rounding out the top three was El Dorado, finishing in second place (193.6 points), and Cleveland, who finished in third place (190.6 points).

“I am so happy with my team, how much we have achieved and how much we have grown since the beginning of the season,” CHS cheerleader Marie Montoya said.

Montoya is a main base for the Storm team and is helping lead a resurgence season for Storm cheer.

“We feel really good. We are really proud of them. We had a long road from last year coming back from, you know, last place at state. They’ve been working really hard,” CHS cheer head coach Madison Weaver said. “They did everything that we asked them to do and more.”

In other news, the RRHS cheer squad also received a first-place bid to the UCA Nationals.

“I’m very excited that the team made nationals. We have been putting in a lot of time and work trying to reach our goals. I’m very proud as a coach of them, but I’m also proud that we can continue coach Wendy’s [Lopez] legacy in competing nationally,” RRHS head coach Elisa Lopez said. “Getting our bid to nationals isn’t the easiest, and to win the virtual competition and get a bid is a great accomplishment to start the season.”

However, cheer squads weren’t the only ones to showcase their hard work as the dance teams also competed for a shot at first place.

The RRHS dance team competed in the “Varsity 5A POM” category and finished in third place (155 points), and the CHS dance team competed in the “5A Varsity Hip Hop” category and placed sixth (142.6 points).

RRHS and CHS C-team and JV teams also competed. CHS’s C-team came in first place (161.3 points) in the “C team Game Day” category, and the JV team came in fourth place (150.3 points) in the “Junior Varsity Cheer with Music” category. RRHS’s C-team came in second place (146.5 points) in the “C team Cheer with Music” category,” and their JV team came in fifth place (149.4 points) in the “Junior Varsity Cheer with Music” category.

Schools competed at the Spirit Rally were: Atrisco Heritage Academy, Clovis, El Dorado, Volcano Vista, La Cueva, Sandia, West Mesa, Los Lunas, Goddard, Rio Grande, Albuquerque, Fort Sumner, Clayton, Pecos, Tatum, Thoreau, Del Norte, St. Pius, Valley, Cibola, Rio Rancho and Cleveland.

Middle schools represented at Spirit Rally were Lincoln, Mountain View, Montezuma-Cortez, Tony Hillerman, Gattis and Yucca.

Sandia Vista, Shamrock and Moriarty squads competed at the elementary level.