NAVARRO EDGES BLINN IN FIRST COMPETITIVE CHEER MEET

Story by Joe Alberico, Blinn College Sports Information

The Blinn College and Navarro College cheerleading teams battled it out in the NJCAA's first competitive cheer meet Saturday at the Kruse Center in Brenham, Texas.

The historic event expectedly came down to the wire, with the Bulldogs outlasting the Buccaneers 153.55-148.75.

Across three periods and 12 heats, Navarro bested Blinn in five of them while the squads tied in two others.

A tight competition came as no surprise for two cheer teams boasting 24 combined National Cheer Association (NCA) championships.

"I'm just really proud of the girls," Bucs assistant coach/cheer coordinator Amanda Logback said. "I thought they kept their composure really well, kept good energy throughout the entire event, and considering the fact they were competing in a different format than what they are used to, I thought they did really well with pacing themselves and bouncing back from things through the competition."

Blinn's dual with Navarro was a drastic shift from its typical competitive year, in which the Bucs spend several months performing on the sidelines of athletic events while simultaneously preparing for the NCA College Nationals meet.

The Bucs answered the demands of their latest challenge admirably. 

In the meet-opening compulsory tumbling period, Blinn started strong with a 10-9 victory in the toe tucks heat. 

The other heats in the period were scored as follows:

• Heat 2 - Standing hand tucks: Navarro 10-9
• Heat 3 - Standing 2 to layout: Blinn 10-9
• Heat 4 - Round-off tuck: Navarro 10-9
• Heat 5 - Round-off hand layout: Blinn 10-9

Blinn sophomore Sydney Junek said the format of Saturday's meet was a welcomed shift from the NCA championship, allowing the athletes to demonstrate a wide variety of skills as opposed to a single team-based and choreographed routine.

"During the NCA meet, you get one shot," Junek explained, "but in this meet today you got multiple chances to go out on the mat and show everybody what you can do. As a cheerleader, that's pretty cool."

In the second period, compulsory/creative building, Blinn and Navarro each won two heats and finished deadlocked in two others.

The second period was scored as follows:

• Heat 1 - Compulsory pyramid 1: Blinn 10-9
• Heat 2 - Compulsory pyramid 2: Blinn 10-9
• Heat 5 - Compulsory stunt sequence 1: Navarro 10-9
• Heat 6 - Compulsory stunt sequence 2: Navarro 10-9
• Heat 8 - Compulsory basket toss sequence: 10-10 tie
• Heat 9 - Creative toss sequence: 9-9 tie

Some heats were excluded from the three periods of competition.

In the final event of the day, the two teams performed a 1-minute compulsory routine. The Bulldogs earned the win 50-45.

Navarro finished with a three-period total of 154 points while Blinn tallied 150. Judges then made deductions based on three criteria: tumbling, building, and safety, to account for the final scores.

Blinn head cheer and dance coach Sarah Barland Flisowski said she is currently working to schedule more competitive meets this season, adding that Saturday's successful competition made the prospect of more events an exciting one.

"With this being the first NJCAA meet ever, I thought it went very well, and while there is always room to grow, what an exciting starting point," Barland Flisowski said. "Then you add Navarro into the equation, and you have two big-name teams going at it in a monumental moment for cheer. We had fans here today; our event was live streamed; people got to see all the aspects of cheerleading and what our athletes are capable of. I'm super excited that we were the two teams to get this thing started for the NJCAA."