The Ouachita Competition Cheer team took first place at the first ever STUNT competition in the history of Arkansas athletics on February 19th at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark.
STUNT is a cheerleading competition where two squads compete against each other, performing the exact same routine. The matches are divided into four quarters, as a football game would, where each quarter represents a different style of cheering, competing in three routines in each quarter.
After each routine, judges award a point to the team with the better sharpness, spacing, technique and synchronization.
“STUNT is something that’s not very big, in fact this past weekend was the first ever STUNT competition in Arkansas, but it’s not like any other competition anyone has ever done,” said senior cheerleader and captain Mariah Gough.
After a scheduling issue caused a setback in the preparation of the team for the STUNT event, the girls were left with just a few short weeks to get ready.
“The girls for the other teams have been working on these routines for months, probably since football season,” said Gough.
In just over a month, the Ouachita squad learned eight routines, preparing them for anything the judges might surprise them with.
“When we train we go through a lot, especially when we get to where we are practicing once a day,” said freshman cheerleader Hayley Knight.
“At one point I was going straight from a three hour cheer practice to two basketball games without a break,” Knight added.
There’s no doubt that cheer practices are no joke, where there is even workout plans for conditioning and full body workouts weekly.
But both Gough and Knight were extremely thankful for the extensive training once they saw other teams begin to tire later into routines.
“During workouts it’s hard to appreciate our coach’s motivation, because workouts are not fun,” said Gough.
“Once we began to see that we were in better shape that the other squads, we started to realize that all that hard work worth it,” added Knight.
The hard work paid off. The OBU Competition Squad won its final competition in a sudden death match, where the number 6 Menlo College Oaks scored zero points, as the Tigers outlasted Menlo.
The OBU Competition Cheer Squad plans to continue to compete in STUNT tournaments in the future.
“The experience was awesome, and the competing was so much fun,” said Gough. “It’s even possible that Ouachita could host a STUNT tournament in the future.”
