William Penn Wins Bronze at NCA/NDA NAIA College Nationals
Daytona, Fla.–In its inaugural trip to the sport’s biggest stage, the William Penn Competitive Cheer Squad came home with hardware at the NCA/NDA NAIA College Nationals last week.
The team placed third out of six teams in the Small Co-Ed Division, while close to 300 teams from around the country competed in numerous different competitions.
The NAIA Small Co-Ed Division consisted of six qualifying schools–St. Ambrose, Lindenwood (Mo.), Oklahoma City, Midland (Neb.), Culver-Stockton (Mo.), and William Penn.
The top three teams from Thursday’s preliminary round automatically advanced to the finals. They included Lindenwood, Oklahoma City, and St. Ambrose.
The other three squads then faced off in Friday morning’s Challenge Cup to determine the final spot. The Statesmen easily won that event to fill out the afternoon’s final round.
In the finals, William Penn earned a score of 8.352 without a single deduction to take the bronze. The team was the only one of the four not to have points deducted.
Lindenwood collected gold at 9.333 (scored 9.533, but 0.2 points were taken away for deductions), while Oklahoma City was runner-up at 8.979 (scored 9.379, but 0.4 points were taken away for deductions). St. Ambrose rounded out the scoring at 8.302 (scored 8.602, but 0.3 points were taken away for deductions).
“We had a very successful season with many new “firsts” for William Penn University and the Statesmen Cheerleading squad,” Head Cheer Coach Jill Thompson said. “Placing third at NCA Nationals was a great way to end the year. We maintained our Conference Champion status by placing ahead of our conference competitors and that was huge for us.”
“From day one, we have focused on a clean routine with no errors,” Thompson added. “We accomplished this by not having any deductions throughout both postseason competitions. I am very proud of each member of the competitive squad for achieving everything that we as a team set out to accomplish. Our motto this season was: Coming together is a BEGINNING, keeping together is a PROCESS, working together is SUCCESS. The squad lived by this motto and for that, they were rewarded.”
“We feel privileged to have wonderful support from students, staff, faculty, and alumni of William Penn as well as our families,” Thompson concluded. “We would like to thank everyone who supported us throughout the season. Please continue to follow us on our webpage and on Facebook at Statesmen Cheerleading.”
