Fayetteville Wins Fourth Straight Cheer Title

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

— Another dynasty is being built in Northwest Arkansas.

Fayetteville entered the Arkansas High School State Cheer Championships as a three-time defending champion, winning the Class 7A Co-Ed division in 2010 before back-to-back titles in the All-girl division the last two years.

Even with a clear target on its back, Fayetteville held off the competition for a fourth straight state championship to win the 7A All-Girl division Dec. 21 at Summit Arena on Hot Springs.

Unlike the previous three crowns, Fayetteville’s fourth consecutive cheer championship came down to the wire.

“This year, Springdale Har-Ber got second, and it was very close,” Fayetteville coach Angela McCutcheon said. “Both teams hit their routines, and it was very clean.

“We had won the last three years by more than 10 points, so this was the closest of the four by far.”

Fayetteville edged Har-Ber by just 0.4 points. The difference with both teams performing their routines well was Fayetteville’s level of dift culty.

“With the choreography we had this year, we knew if we hit it we would have a good chance,” McCutcheon said. “The more dift cult your choreography, the more points you can get, and we knew it was a very dift cult routine.”

Fayetteville has fi ve seniors — Logan Dallas, Shelby Bensinger, Lauren Latta, Ashley Efird and Maddie Snyder — who have now won three consecutive all-girls division state cheer titles.

“It meant so much for me and the seniors to win,” Dallas said. “You spend so much time at practice, we become like a family.

“So for us, we wanted to make sure our hard work had paid off, and we wanted to be able to pass on the torch and kind of build this into a dynasty before we left.”

Making Fayetteville’s win more impressive was the fact it competed in just one competition this season prior to the state championships.

“We did have our ups and downs,” McCutcheon said. “We had some injuries, and we had some competitions canceled. “But this group was the most skilled and most athletic group I’ve had of the last four.”

In other spirit squad state competition, Elkins won its third consecutive All-Girls championship in Class 3A, and Pea Ridge won the Class 1A-4A Co-Ed championship.