Gordon Lee cheerleaders win fourth straight state title
Competition cheerleaders win fourth straight state title
They weren’t allowed to say it all season long, but on Friday night, they could scream it from the top of their lungs.
It’s a four-peat for Gordon Lee. The Navy-and-white earned a score of 99 points to win the Class 1A public school state championship for the fourth consecutive season at the Columbus Civic Center.
“It’s a pretty great feeling,” said head coach Kelley Whitman. “To finally be able to say ‘four-peat’ is fantastic. They gave it their all and I know that not one of them left that floor with any regrets. It was a perfect combination of the hard work and practice that they have been doing for months.”
Commerce came in second with a score of 87 points, while Lake Oconee Academy was third with 77.5 points. Irwin County (60.6) and Bowdon (58.5) rounded out the top five in the classification.
Whitman said not only was her team a great group of cheerleaders, but they were a great group of leaders, students and people.
“It’s going to be hard to have to say good-bye to the seniors,” she said. “When I woke up Friday morning, I was all excited thinking about (the state finals), but it was also a little sad knowing it would be the last time I would be doing something I love with a group of people that I love.”
Those seniors will graduate with four state championship rings to their credit, making them the first senior group of GL cheerleaders to ever accomplish the impressive feat.
“They are leaving big shoes to fill,” Whitman added. “But they set a great example for all of these underclassmen to follow. (The underclassmen) now know what it looks like to be a Gordon Lee senior cheerleader and we’ll forever be grateful to them all.”
Repeat winners were the trend of the weekend. Mount Paran Christian (101.5 points) also won on Friday as they took the Class 1A private school title for an eighth consecutive year, while Class 7A Mill Creek (105) made it back-to-back state titles in the Coed Division that same night.
On Saturday, Vidalia (89.5) beat out two-time defending champion Armuchee by a half-point to win its first state title since 2016. Pierce County (97.5) made it five in a row in Class 3A with their seventh title in the past eight years, while Denmark (92) won Class 4A for its first title in just its second season as a school.
Mcintosh (106) won Class 5A for its fifth state title all-time and its first since 2016. Creekview (95.5) snapped Northgate’s bid for a fifth consecutive championship in Class 6A and Lambert (107) made it back-to-back titles in Class 7A. The Longhorns have won six state cheerleading titles in the past eight seasons.
Model and Pepperell finished fourth and fifth, respectively in Class 2A. Ringgold took home a fifth-place finish in Class 3A after punching a ticket to Saturday through Friday qualifying and Heritage placed eighth in the Class 4A finals after making the finals as the Region 6 champion.
LFO did not qualify for the finals in Class 3A, while Ridgeland and Lafayette also saw their competition seasons on Friday end after missing out on the finals in Class 4A.