Competitive cheer: Lincoln-Way East brings home title as Herald-News area dominates at IHSA state finals

BLOOMINGTON – The Herald-News area’s competitive cheerleading teams dominated the Large Team Division at the IHSA state finals at Bloomington’s Grossinger Motors Arena last weekend.

And none dominated more than newly crowned state champion Lincoln-Way East.

With a team score of 98.13 – the highest recorded in any division, the only close competitor being Medium Division state champion Oak Forest’s 97.67 – Lincoln-Way East roared back to the top of the winners’ podium.

It is L-W East’s seventh state championship, the most of any school since the IHSA introduced a competitive cheer tournament in 2005-06. The Griffins’ cheer team has qualified for state 17 of those 18 years, scored 14 top-10 finishes and brought home the championship in 2014, ‘15, ‘17, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21 and now ‘23.

“After graduating 14 seniors from our 2022 team and knowing there was going to be a very talented field to compete against this year, we knew we were going to have to work exceptionally hard to get back on top of the podium,” said Lincoln-Way East coach Jayson Polad, who has been the head coach or co-coach of all seven of those state championship teams.

“This team gave everything they had, and it paid off in a big way. Even though 15 of them had never been on the [IHSA] state floor before, the whole team looked right at home, like they were just a bunch of kids of having a great time with each other doing what they love with the people they love.

“I could not be prouder.”

Coached by Polad, Maddy Enright, Jen Ryan and Lauren Williams, the state champion squad competing Saturday included Sofia Aguilar, Gianna Bianchini, Olivia Boswell, Allie Collins, Payten Dircks, Gwen Drechsel, Delaney Drogemuller, Francesca Flaris, Kelly Hannigan, Fiona Hilbert, London Joy, Emily LaValle, Mairi Lehan, Marissa Mangin, Courtney Marneris, Kayla Reasanova, Kaitlyn Regnier, Lauren Ristich, Savannah Stolarek, Isabella Talowski, Francesca Totosz, Lauren Vander Kooi, Rose Walenga and Rian Willingham.

Three other Herald-News competitive cheerleading teams also recorded top-five finishes in the Large Team Division.

Lincoln-Way West (95.43) was state runner-up. Lockport (94.63) placed third. Lincoln-Way Central (91.98) came in fifth of the 10 teams that advanced to Saturday’s final round out of Friday’s state preliminaries.

In the Medium Team Division, a pair of Herald-News schools claimed top-10 placings – Lemont (95.03) as runner-up behind Oak Forest and Providence Catholic (90.70) with a sixth-place showing.