Story by Carlos Hernandez, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Andris Visockis

Aquinas’s Cheer Team continues their hard work as they hosted their second annual ‘Saints Showdown’ in Alksnis Fieldhouse on Sunday, February 14, 2016. This was their second time hosting the WHAC Conference Tournament. The new facility and support from the college allowed for the cheer team enough space to be able to host nine teams efficiently.

In preparation for this event, the cheer team worked through a rigorous practice schedule on Wednesday mornings, Friday afternoons, and Sunday afternoons. At practice, the team worked on skills in gymnastics and tumbling. In addition, the team also worked with high schoolers and younger folk at their Wyoming Expedition on January 10. Excited to be a part of this year’s competition is senior Brandon K. Harris who commented on the event saying “I’m proud of what our team has accomplished; we’ve gone through a lot this semester. changing up of routines and switching in and out members and doing things like that. So, I think we did well on Sunday, but we have so much far [sic] to go.”

Each team performs separately with their routines. The order to competiton is normally random. The cheer team scored 69 points in their portion and the dance team scored 100, allowing them to win the dance portion by three points. As a bonus to the win, to Saints were honored at the event. One was sophomore Katie Hann, who was named to the First All- WHAC Team as well as the Champions of Character representative for Aquinas’ Cheer Squad. Also honored was first-year Brigitte Busch, who was named a part of the honorable mention for the All-WHAC Squad.

The Saints recently competed at Siena Heights for the NAIA Regular Season Competition where the team had an outstanding showing. Next up for the Saints is the NAIA Regionals at Siena Heights on February 27 where they will look to compete for a spot in the national tournament.

About the writer…

Carlos “Eddie” Hernandez is a fourth year student at Aquinas and has been writing for the newspaper for a year and a half. He is an Acting and Music Major and is also a member of AQPB. His hobbies include ponies and Pokèmon. Other hobbies include eating and sleeping.