Alabama Cheerleading Wins Two National Titles
1/19/2015 12:00:00 AM | Spirit Squads
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama cheerleading squad took home a pair of national titles over the weekend, winning both the Coed and All-Girl Division IA titles at the 2015 Universal Cheerleaders Association and Universal Dance Association national championship.
The title is the third for the coed squad (1983 and 2011) and the first for the all-girl team, which only made its debut at the national championships last season. Alabama is the first ever school to win both the Division I coed and all-girl title in the same season.
"I'm absolutely thrilled to have both teams coming home as national champions," said Alabama cheerleading squad coordinator Jennifer Thrasher. "What we did has never been done before, having a school win both the coed and all-girl divisions. We have an incredible amount of support from our athletic department, which has been very inspiring to our teams to represent the Script A with class and pride."
The three-day competition took place at ESPN's Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Over 4,000 cheerleaders and dancers from 192 teams across the country participated in the prestigious event. Cheerleaders were judged based on stunting, tumbling skills, crowd-leading abilities and overall performance.
"I'm just so proud of our tam's hard work and relentless effort to reach their goals of becoming champions," said Thrasher. "I feel like we have the best coaches in Brian Groeschell and Brandon Prince. They really prepared our teams to be successful and believe in themselves.
"We are all so happy to be bringing back two titles back to Tuscaloosa!"
In the coed competition, Alabama knocked off defending national champion Kentucky to claim the top spot, improving from the Crimson Tide's third-place finish last season. Central Florida finished in second place for the second-straight season while the Wildcats slid to third.
"For me, it was all about winning for the seniors and everybody on the team," said sophomore Ben Ingallina. "I wanted to send those seniors out on a winning note. That was the best feeling in the world. We didn't win to prove anything to other people, we just did it for each other. I'm all about teamwork and the big picture. We didn't feel any pressure from an experience point of view and we didn't feel any pressure. We knew our fans and supporters wanted us to win so we just went out there and performed and put on a show. If we just worked together and embrace the moment we knew we could win."
The Crimson Tide's all-girl team won by a slim margin over three-time defending national champion Indiana. Alabama's all-girl team is only in its fourth year of existence, meaning that this year's seniors were the first incoming class for the program back in the 2011-2012 season.
"Not only was just being at the competition the most honorable and exciting experience ever," said senior Clarke Kelly, "but to hear our named called out in first place was literally a dream-come-true. We are all so blessed to represent a program like the University of Alabama and the fact that we have been given the privilege to compete and show off or talent is just utterly indescribable. We love and trust each other so much as a team, and that's honestly why I feel that we were so successful. We were excited to show the world what the Alabama all-girl team was all about and there is no sweeter feeling."
