SARANAC — The Northeastern Clinton Central School took first place for the eighth time in nine years at the CVAC Cheerleading Championships at Saranac Central High School.
The event, hosted by Saranac High School, took place Sunday afternoon and featured eight teams from around the region competing for first, second and third place trophies.
Each team had three minutes to flip, lift and twirl in front of the audience-packed bleachers.
As the judges went to deliberate over who would walk away with the trophies, the cheerleaders all danced — sometimes to the Macarena, other times to Cotton Eyed Joe — as they waited for the DJ to announce the winners.
And when he did, the gym filled with cheers, and in some cases, murmurs of disappointment.
The NCCS cheerleading team took first place, with Beekmantown in second and Northern Adirondack winning third.
Marcey Ryan, head coach for the NCCS team, fought back tears as she watched her cheerleaders celebrate by hugging, posing for pictures and doing what they do best — cheering. It is her second year as the team's coach.
"I am so proud of them," Ryan said. "We have had a lot of setbacks this year, and they overcame all of them."
Sarena Foster, the team captain, said the setbacks made her more nervous than ever to compete this year.
"We have had a couple of injuries and one girl is sick," Foster said. "If one person is not there, it affects everyone. We can't just bench someone."
Foster and Ryan both said the team spent the last few days leading up to the competition re-doing their entire routine to compensate for missing people.
For Foster, a senior preparing to study fashion and marketing in Savannah, Ga., after she graduates, the win was a nice farewell to her years as a high-school student.
"It just feels awesome, especially since this is my last time to cheer, ever," Foster said.
The announcement of the winning team broke the tension in the gym for the first time that afternoon.
Michelle Bishop, head coach of the Peru High School cheerleading team, sat on the bleachers during the event, clutching a teddy bear as she watched her team's competitors perform.
"This bear is my personal way of staying sane," Bishop said.
The Peru cheerleaders had grabbed second place the two previous years, and Bishop said she had hopes of winning this time around. Even though her team didn't place, she said they worked hard to prepare for the competition.
"Lately, we've been polishing and conditioning," Bishop said. "Our routines are all original; we practice them five days a week."
Bishop was not the only person feeling anxious during the event, and hers wasn't the only team that had undergone rigorous training to prepare for the competition.
Vicki Nephew, head coach of the Moriah cheerleading team, said cheerleading is more like a sport than people think.
"They go through months of running and weight training to prepare for this," Nephew said.
Nephew added that, even though cheerleading is competitive, there is a positive vibe amongst competitors in the North Country.
"The different teams are actually pretty supportive of each other," she said.
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