Last Saturday, November 9th, the Hackett Lady Hornets showed off their skills in their very first ever cheer competition, the Van Buren Invitational. These paid invitationals are put together for teams from all around to be critiqued by judges in hopes of improving on their routines before the State Tournament on December 21st. “We left school at 7 a.m. on the morning after a late football game,” expressed Coach Courtney Sangster and Assistant Coach Katey Wyckoff. “We were SO proud of how well they did for their first competition!”
“We had two girls enter the individual competitions for tumbling and jumps.” These competitions are for anyone from any class, for schools 1A-7A. “Senior Sydney Widmer placed 3rd overall in tumbling and 3rd overall in jumps and sophomore Rachel Widmer placed 1st in jumps and 2nd in tumbling. We were just extremely proud of them for even having the guts to enter, but they definitely earned/deserved their medals. They killed it!”
As a team, the Lady Hornets flexed their cheer muscle and took 1st Place. “We got a lot of feedback on our score sheets, good and bad. We practiced the Sunday after the competition and made a lot of changes to our routine. We have one last practice before our next competition in Hot Springs on Saturday, November 16. It will be a bigger competition, but still a good experience for the girls. They’re all really excited for the rest of the season now that they’ve gotten this first one out of the way. We are really excited to see how far they’ll go!”
The Lady Hornets will have another competition on November 23rd in Alma and then again on December 14th in Bentonville before taking their game to State on December 21st.
Photos courtesy of Hackett Cheer
