Cleveland Challenge is something to cheer about

RIO RANCHO — The Thunderdome at CHS was packed Saturday with dancers, cheerleaders, parents, friends, family and spirit competition enthusiasts as 10 different cheer squads from around the state came together for the Cleveland Challenge.

The La Cueva Bears walked away with the gold medal, and Cleveland took silver.

“They did really well,” Storm head coach Maddison Weaver said of her squad. “I’m really proud of all of them.”

The day began with JV and C-team performances in dance and cheer. The varsity teams took to the floor in the afternoon.

West Mesa, McCurdy, Manzano, Hope Christian, Roswell, Sandia, Cibola, La Cueva, Atrisco Heritage and Cleveland all competed in the annual cheer event hosted by CHS. Teams were judged in two different styles: Game-Day Cheer and Music Cheer.

Nerves and expectations were high for the Storm coming into their home event. They were prepared to attempt a very difficult routine, one which they had practiced ad nauseum over the previous week but was still a little challenging, according to Weaver.

“We try our best to get [a high-difficulty routine], but there’s a balancing act where there are points for execution also,” Weaver said. “But this routine was very difficult.”

After a couple of initial stumbles, the Storm found their rhythm and completed the most crowd-pleasing routine of the day.

“They were nervous. This was our first competition where we’ve done this routine specifically. They really had a handle on the last routine that we did,” she said. “Then this one, we’ve been working all week, really, really hard to make it perfect and keep getting reps in. It’s not perfect, but we just gotta keep working it to get it perfect.”

Next weekend, the Storm cheer team heads to Manzano High School for the APS Invite competition.