By Rachael Arnts–Morningside has spirit! The Morningside Competitive Cheer squad is gearing up for this weekend’s GPAC Cheer and Dance Invitational hosted by Morningside College.
This competitive squad is looking to improve from last year’s inaugural season. So far, this season the Mustangs are off to a great start by getting first against Doane and second against Midland.
Sophomore Ashley Peterson and Junior Taylor Weiler are both competing for their second year. They explain their strategy for growing and improving with each performance.
“The first competition [of the season] is basic, then we eventually put in harder stuff,” said Peterson.
Weiler added, “Our routine is never the same each time we perform it. We always look at the judges’ scores and comments and try to take their advice to get better scores.”
Peterson and Weiler can see new strengths for this year’s season compared to last year. Peterson believes that by adding more elements like tumblers, helps the team out point-wise.
“Last year we only had two tumblers, now we have six. We get more points that way,” said Peterson.
Weiler can see a difference in the teams attitude and mental toughness. “We have also been able to push ourselves and have girls try things they were scared to do, or never thought they could do. That has definitely shown our mental toughness, as well as helped improve the scores we can get at competitions.
The Mustangs will be competing in the stunting category, against Northwestern, Doane and Midland this Saturday.
“Midland is definitely our biggest competition, but we also have Northwestern competing in the Stunting category this year for the first time, so we have yet to see what they will bring to the table,” comments Weiler.
All the Cheer and Dance action will be in the Rosen Verdoorn Sports Center this Saturday, February 13 starting at 11a.m.
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