The EHS cheer team flipped, flexed and flew at sectionals to reach a second-place score and advance to state qualifiers.

EHS placed second in the 3A division with a score of 94.77 due to the complexity of their routine and the judges’ opinions on the difficulty of performing it, but they hit zero, meaning no points were deducted.

“I think we really needed [to hit zero] to boost our confidence going into state,” senior Maggie Bowser said. 

Other team members agree that hitting zero was an important moment for the team.

“I think the team really needed [to hit zero],” junior Izzy McOlgan said. “It just felt really good. It bonded us as a team and really showed us what we could do and other teams what we could do.”

EHS hosted sectionals Jan. 31, and the team found benefits and drawbacks to having the competition at home. 

“It kind of did both positive and negative things,” Bowser said. “Positive in the way that all of our friends and family were able to come and support us one last time at home, but also the judges down [in southern Illinois] score a lot harder than the judges up north, so the sectionals that were up north they were getting higher scores even if their difficulty wasn’t as high. 

McOlgan disagrees on the specifics but thinks the location had an overall positive impact.

“I think it gave us a sense of confidence,” McOlgan said. “We were on our own mats. It was our own space. We were comfortable. [It was] just really fun to just be at our own gym.”

The team also thinks having the more critical judges of southern Illinois pushed them to improve.

“I think it was good for us to get criticized really hard now so we can fix all the little things before state,” Bowser said.

Cheer will head to state Feb. 6 and plans to use their victory and what they’ve learned at sectionals to continue the success streak.

“Our plans are just to go out there and do our best,” Bowser said. “We hope we hit zero both days and hopefully end up on that podium, but we just want to put our best foot forward and end on a good note and do the absolute best we can.”