Cheerleading title far from routine for Kamehameha

By Leila Wai
Special to the Advertiser

Bringing home a national championship last month, it made the state of Hawai'i proud.

By raising the level of difficulty for their routine, Kamehameha won the large division at the Local Motion Cheerleading Championships. Jay Metzger • Special to The Advertiser

"I am so proud, the one thing we wanted to do was come in here and do the routine we knew we could do," Wong said. "And they did that. And you really can't have any regrets when that happens. It is just really icing on the cake when they win first place for that. It's been a really big year for us."

Kamehameha, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion, won the large division (12-18 members) with a score of 271 points, edging out O'ahu Interscholastic co-champion Radford, which had 267.50. Baldwin placed third with 249.

With 3.5 points separating first and second place, Wong's decision to raise the level of difficulty of the routine used to win the Small Varsity Division of the National High School Cheerleading Championships paid off.

"We tweaked it up — we made it harder. To compete here in Hawai'i, there are so many good squads," Wong said. "We had to really up the level, and we did.

"They (Radford) did not give us a break; they were right there the whole way. They did a wonderful routine."

Kamehameha's Kanana Dang, recipient of the Hawai'i State Cheerleading Senior Scholarship Award, said that going into the competition, the squad felt more pressure than it did last year when it won the medium division.

"It was a lot more intense this year — being that we came home as national champions, we had more pressure; we represented Hawai'i and we needed to show them why we represented them and why we are national champions," Dang said.

OIA co-champion Moanalua won the medium division (11 or fewer members) with 259.50 points, with a comfortable cushion over second place 'Aiea, last year's large division state champion, which had 229.50, and third-place Punahou with 203.50.

Said Moanalua coach Sherrie Faildo: "For these girls, it isn't like any other sport. As soon as you get on the mat you've got 2 1/2 minutes and that is it. It is a make-or-break, hit-or-miss kind of thing. We hit it tonight like I've never seen it before."

Last year, the Menehune cheerleading squad placed third in the state championships. This year, the squad had an undefeated record after winning two preseason meets, the OIA Eastern Division, and tying for first in the OIA Championships.

"It feels really good because it is my last year and we wanted to win," Moanalua senior captain Janelle Corpuz, said. "This year we were hungry for it; we really wanted it."

Judges base their scores on cheerleading fundamentals, routine execution, voice projection, showmanship, expression, choreography and performance.

Each squad had 2 minutes, 30 seconds for its performance, could not exceed a maximum of 1:30 of music and needed a minimum of 35 seconds of cheer/chant.

RESULTS

Medium (11 or fewer members)

1, Moanalua 259.50

(Megan Batara, Blossom Caballero, Janelle Corpuz, Jenna Neely, Leilanie Ojastro, Lindsey Okumoto, Maria Olmos, Tyzelle Ortego, Jessica Reed, Angelica Wright)

2, 'Aiea 229.5

3, Punahou 203.5

4, Kaua'i 200.0

5, Waipahu 188.0

6, Maui 185.0

7, Hilo 171.5

8, Kailua 171.0

9, Kaimuki 165.0

Large Division (12-18 members)

1, Kamehameha 271.0

(Jessie Piane Ahuna, Tiare Camarillo, Mia Archuleta, Kanana Dang, Roelle Hoohuli, Giselle-Anne Kim, Alyssa Kong, Shawna Lee, Kamaile Maldonado, Emi Manuia, Summer Maunakea, Tamara Patton, Chanel Silva)

2, Radford 267.5

3, Baldwin 249.0

4, Waiakea 194.0

5, Kapolei 180.5

6, Mililani 180.0

7, Iolani 179.5

8 (tie), St. Joseph, Pearl City 164.0