The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Courtesy UGA Cheerleading UGA Club Cheerleading team holds teammate Alison Evans in the air. The team came in 2nd place at nationals. [Click to enlarge]

Two University clubs traveled to Daytona Beach, Fla., and returned with top 10 finishes at their respective National Championships, capturing second place in cheerleading and 10th place in dance.

In its fifth year of existence, the University's competition cheerleading club finished runner-up in the nation in the All-Girl Intermediate division behind Georgia Southern.

"Like any squad, we had our ups and downs throughout the season," team president Mallorie Kanter said. "We finally got it together before nationals. We thought we would do well and compete, but second [place] was a great way to finish."

Team captain Brittany Farr elaborated on those "ups and downs."

"We have a coach that's not from Athens, so a lot of practices, we work on our own," Farr said. "A lot of our girls tried out for the sideline team, so we lost a lot of people to that and had to recruit some people at the last minute."

The competition in Daytona also featured its share of high and low moments, as the team was assessed .25 points of penalties during the preliminary round, sitting in seventh place after day one.

Georgia was the least penalized squad during Friday's final round and improved from seventh to second overall, a leap which Farr called "a huge surprise."

With a roster populated by freshmen and sophomores, Kanter, a senior, was hopeful that a shift in the structure of the club would help Georgia stay near the top of the nation in cheerleading in the near future.

"You know year after year, it's going to get better and better, and we'll be a better, stronger squad and more cohesive," Kanter said. "This is the first year we've run it this way, treating it more like a club. Before it was run by the coach, but this year we've taken a more active role," she said.

The Red Hotz dance team had a more disappointing trip to Daytona, finishing 10th out of 16 teams in the Open Division I grouping on Thursday.

The top eight from the group of 16 automatically advanced to the finals, while the bottom eight competed in the Challenge Cup for one at-large birth to Friday's competition.

The Red Hotz finished second in the Challenge Cup, behind the Middle Tennessee State Lightning Dance.

Video highlights of both team's performances are available though www.varsity.com.

Fox Sports Net will televise the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance National Championship April 26 at 7 p.m.

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