Competitive cheerleading: Johnsburg repeats as Small Division state champion

Johnsburg’s cheerleading team stuck with its same plan throughout the season of trying to make the next routine just a little bit better than the last.

It got the Skyhawks through Friday’s preliminary round of the Small Division at the IHSA Cheerleading State Meet in Bloomington with the highest score.

And on Saturday, it landed Johnsburg its second consecutive state title.

The Skyhawks scored 93.83 points on Saturday to take the Small Division in back-to-back years. Columbia (93.35) was second and Breese Central (89.00) was third. Richmond-Burton also made the finals and was 10th at 85.97.

Huntley took second in the Coed Division with 94.13, right behind champ Buffalo Grove at 94.57.

“We just grew more confident and we trusted each other each time we went out there,” Johnsburg senior Riley Klotz said. “It started to get easier as we went on and we were able to perform more each time because we less worried about skills.”

Skyhawks coach Matt Dawes urged his team to look at different areas of the scoresheet and continually get better.

“Yesterday we came out on top of prelims, got some comments from the judges and went out and had a two-hour practice that evening,” Dawes said. “We made some little adjustments to improve our routine going into Day 2 and it paid off.”

Ten teams qualified from Friday’s preliminaries in each of the four divisions. Competition started all over on Saturday in the finals.

Like last year, Johnsburg went to Gymnastics, Etc. in Bloomington after Friday’s qualification round. The Skyhawks had 10 girls back from last year’s state champs.

“It was definitely a ton of fun. I enjoy being around all these people,” senior Madie Schultz said. “We see each other every day. So we really trusted each other and just had fun.

“I was really happy and I was crying [after the routine] because I was sad it was done. We put what we could out on the mat and it was really just up to the judges on what was going to happen.”

Johnsburg traveled to Dallas two weeks before and won the Advanced Small Varsity Division at the National Cheerleading Association High School National Competition.

“We threw a different routine down in Texas, turned around and changed it back to our IHSA routine with a couple different criteria, got it ready to go and competed at sectional four days after we got back,” Dawes said.

The finals order was selected randomly, with Johnsburg going second.

“I was really proud of what we put on the floor,” Klotz said. “We knew we hit because we were all watching each other out there. I was really happy to be able to do it one last time and have a big party on th floor.”

In the Medium Division, Burlington Central took fifth in the Medium Division with a score of 90.37. The Rockets scored 90.97, .6 better than their score in the qualifying round. Central had a 90.37 to advance from Friday in ninth place.

The Rockets recorded their highest finish in school history with the fifth.

Dundee-Crown finished eighth in the Large Division with 90.70 and Jacobs was ninth with 89.13.