On Feb. 15, the Lakewood Rangers cheerleading team competed in The Ohio Grand Cheer and Dance Championship hosted by AmeriCheer at Westerville High School in Westerville, Ohio. The team put their all onto the mats and secured third place in their division with other awards earned by team members.
“I’m extremely proud of our group who performed at the Ohio Grand Championship,” Coach Maura Flynn said.
The team proudly representing the Lakewood Rangers comprised fourteen high schoolers and seven middle schoolers. They all arrived at Lakewood High School at 6 in the morning on Saturday as the competition was set to start around 10, and they had a long drive ahead of them.
Once they arrived around 9 a.m., they immediately put their minds and bodies to work. They warmed up and stretched and then began running and practicing their routines. Teams are allowed to rehearse their routines on their own in different spaces of the building. However, each team also gets a scheduled time to run their routines on mats similar to the one they will eventually perform on in front of judges. Once that practice is complete, they perform shortly after. At around 11:30, the team put their all onto the mat with the brightest smiles.
“I’m very proud of how the team quickly locked in once it was time for us to perform,” senior Kenla Hamilton said. “We had a rough start during our warm-up, but once we hit the floor we all definitely did better than expected.”
Around noon, the program revealed the results of the competition along with awards and scores. Each team is judged on different criteria based on the division in which they are placed. The Rangers were evaluated for the varsity division, which included tumbling and stunting, one of the highest divisions to compete in. Using and landing skills, usage of props, presentation, overall impression, and more are all things the team gets judged on.
After the judges assessed scores, it was revealed that the Lakewood Cheer team would bring home third place in their division. The two other teams in their division were the Grove City Christian High School and St. Francis DeSales High School cheerleading teams. Along with these two teams were many others that competed in other divisions. The other schools’ cheerleading teams present at the event include Pleasant High School, Heath High School, Marietta High School, Grove City Christian High School, Hilliard Davidson High School, Westerville Central High School, Olentangy Shanahan Middle School, and Granville High School.
Along with this were other awards. The Ideal Senior Cheerleader Leadership Team Award recognizes senior cheerleaders on each team who are great role models and have exceptional leadership. This award was presented to three of Lakewood Cheer’s senior cheerleaders: Kenla Hamilton, Jana Peterson, and Sophia Schelgunov. Team coaches choose this award, while on the other hand, AmeriCheer gives out an “All-American” award at the end of the competition to various cheerleaders. This award is given to those who show excellent skills, and showmanship and are overall impressed with their performance. Athletes selected for this will be invited to cheer at larger events, such as Cleveland Cavalier basketball games and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with other All-American athletes throughout the year.
“Last year, we only had one Lakewood student selected as an All-American and this year we had four which is very exciting!” Coach Flynn said.
The Ranger cheerleaders on the high school team that received this award are Claire Noelker, Cora Barcelona, and Sophia Schelgunov. On the middle school team, Ranger cheerleader Sadie Hanna-Koutla was also recognized for this award.
“Receiving the All-American award this year was super special to me,” Junior Competition Cheer Captain, Claire Noelker, said.
The Lakewood Cheer competition team put strenuous effort into preparing for this competition. Those on the competition team would have to balance additional work from competition preparations and practices with regular sideline cheer practices, cheering at the boys’ basketball games, and youth camp sessions.
“We’ve been preparing for this competition since the beginning of the season and spent 3 hours or more a week practicing for the competition,” Hamilton said. “It was difficult to find more time to practice with our weeks being filled with regular sideline stuff too.”
Only more preparation and dedication will come in the future as Lakewood Cheer actively expands its competition platform as a team, along with the entire program itself.
“We are a very young competitive team,” Coach Flynn said. “When I was in high school at LHS, we probably attended less than five competitions in all of those years. Our current team is competing in higher divisions than we ever have before.”
This was also the first competition the Lakewood Middle School team had performed alongside the high school competition team since 2017. It is essential to the program’s growth that they get as involved with the competitive process as possible, including having the middle school team join them.
“Having them start competing so young will really strengthen our teams’ competitive edge as those girls grow up, with them eventually cheering at the high school,” Coach Flynn said.
“I truly wish that when I was in middle school I had an opportunity to be involved in something like this,” Hamilton said. “I love that we have extended our team allowing younger girls to get a head start on something they love.”
Lakewood Cheer will compete in their final competition for this 2024-2025 season on Saturday, Mar. 8. This will not mark the last competition of the program, as they have big plans for the future with cheer. With a few weeks to prepare and perfect their routines for the next competition, applying corrections from this competition’s scoring, they plan to dominate the competition and put their all onto the mats.
