Cheerleaders Take Second at National Championships

The Clemson Cheerleading Sqaud finished second at the College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championships in Daytona Beach, FL held April 6-10, 2005. There were over 210 Cheer and Dance teams from all over the nation and several teams from overseas. Included in the competition were 18 division IA Cheer teams and ACC rivals NC State, Virginia Tech, Maryland, & Ga Tech. Clemson’s cheerleaders finished the competition as the National Runner Up to the University of Loiusville.

“This is by far the best finish that Clemson has ever managed, and with the squad being as young as it was, we are very excited about the possibilities of bringing home Clemson’s first National Championship in Cheerleading next year,” said head coach Shannon Smith.

There were two rounds of competition with the first round taking place on Thursday. Teams were ranked out of that preliminary round in order to make the final round. Half of the teams in each division were eliminated after the first round. Clemson’s kids ranked 1st in the preliminary round with a great performance and finishing with obviously the highest preliminary ranking the school had ever achieved. Oklahoma was in second and University of Loiusville was in third. NC State was in fourth. The final round was held on Friday afternoon and was being filmed by CBS Sports.

The final round took place outside on the “bandshell” right on the beach. Teams perform in reverse order of placement from the preliminary round which meant that Clemson had to go last out of the ten teams that made it to finals. The Tigers had a great performance and were just edged out by the three-time defending National Champion University of Loiusville. Oklahoma State came back from 8th place to finish 3rd and the University of Houston finished 4th. NC State finished 5th. The competition was televised on National Television on CBS Sports on Saturday, April 23rd at 2pm.