State Regional

It seems a little anti-climactic going to the state cheer regionals the week after being at nationals, but that’s what happened this weekend.  I don’t claim to be an expert when it comes to figuring out judging for cheer competitions, but I thought I had a pretty good idea of what is good and what is bad.  Well thrown all that out, because I am officially stating, I HAVE NO CLUE!

The girls were in a division with, I believe, six other teams.  We figured that they would take the 4 top teams to advance to the state competition next week in Madison, maybe five if we were lucky.  After watching their performance this week, I had some serious misgivings they would be in that group, and I think Kris agreed with me.  There were a couple of teams that had performances that were clearly over the rest of the teams.  And a couple of the teams looked ok, but I thought they would be on the outs.  The Falls’ performance had a couple of falls, and I thought was definitely not one of their better efforts.  Afterward, the coaches also laid into them for the uninspiring, poor routine they pulled. 

But then when it came time for announcing the winners, we didn’t get called for fifth, or fourth, so we figured, well, it has been a good season.  Then all of a sudden they announce, “In second place, Menomonee Falls!”  I was stunned, as was Kris, the teams, and I think the coaches too.  The funniest thing was hearing the Hamilton parents that were sitting near us going ballistic.  Hamilton (the Falls’ biggest rival) finished in third place.  So how they got second, I have no idea.  Apparently, they judges put a lot of emphasis on their jumps and other moves and did not put as much into the falls that they had. 

I say they got lucky, but take it and move on.  State is next week and if they perform like they did at the regionals I think they may be in the cellar.  Then again, what do I know?