Sacred Hearts successfully defended its state cheerleading title, finishing with 513 points in the 16-team medium division (11 or fewer squad members) on Saturday. Baldwin was second with 507 and Waimea placed third with 491.
“It’s just unreal. I feel at the beginning, we were starting from scratch,” said Lancers coach Cadey Vakauta. “To make it to the state championship and win it, I mean, it’s unreal.”
O’Reilly, the Sacred Hearts senior, actually got emotional while on the mat.
“I was a little bit scared before we went on, but I think that’s just nerves,” she said. “When we hit, I was so happy and I was crying when we were dancing. I was so happy.”
Vakauta, in her fourth year as coach, was a cheerleader for Sacred Hearts before graduating in 2011.
“I’m so happy I was able to help them out and bring recognition to our small Catholic school in Waialae,” she said.
Each team was allotted two minutes, 30 seconds of performance time. The routines primarily consisted of tumbling runs, basket tosses, pyramid formation, dance and cheer/chant.
Before the final results were read off, the University of Hawaii cheerleaders and the Hawaii Pacific acrobatics & tumbling team and cheerleaders performed for the crowd.
The Sacred Hearts roster consisted of Kammiee-Marie Ardo, Cayla-Ann Cabanban, Alissa De Smet, Lexy Freitas, Kayla Oka, Melina O’Reilly, Bailey Saito-Ho, Jacelyn Tanuvasa and Megan Valente.
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