SACRAMENTO — Entered in a tough division, the Lower Lake High School competitive cheer squad earned a trip to the national finals by placing fourth in the JAMZ Battle at the Capitol on Saturday in Sacramento.
“It was a 14-team division, which is one of the largest we have ever seen at this regional,” Lower Lake assistant coach Joshua Wade said.
Lower Lake’s competition in the regional qualifier featured high school teams from Dos Palos, Vanden, Santa Teresa, Novato, Davis, Big Valley Christian, Tracy, Dublin, Bishop O’Dowd, Andrew Hill, Analy, Campolindo and Salesian.
“We ended up fourth, but had a high enough score to qualify for state and nationals,” Wade said with an eye toward the state cheerleading competition Feb. 9 in Bakersfield and the JAMZ national championship Feb. 22-23 in Las Vegas.
“Regionals are only one routine, so it has to be perfect,” Wade said. “This sport does not forgive mistakes at the regional and state level. We perform twice at nationals.”
Lower Lake’s award-winning squad has many new faces for the 2018-19 season, according to Wade.
“This was our first competition with a relatively new team,” he said. “Our goal was to hit a clean routine so we could see where we stand against Northern California teams. We are dissecting the routine frame by frame to see where we need to add skills/points in the routine.”
Team members are Maria Onate, Katelyn Ferrell, Crystal Lua, Amber Jones, Summer Baxter, Patti McCleery, Anjelica Anguiano, Brooke Landgraf, Carley Pesonen, Hannah Pankratz, Haylie Howard, Lilly Dahl, Shelby Sapeta and Destinee Mittelstedt.
Lower Lake’s next competition is Slam City on Dec. 1 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.
