NCA Colege Nationals

Every April hundreds of cheerleaders travel across the United States to compete in the NCA College Nationals. Teams work year around to show their skills on the huge outdoor stage called the Band Shell in Daytona Beach Florida. The cheerleaders can look forward to one week of outdoor practices, tumbling in grass, icing sore muscles, playing in the ocean, and of course competing. Last year Lindenwood University was able to send two teams to Nationals. An All Girl team that competed in the DII division, and a Coed team that competed Intermediate. In each division the top nine teams get to go to the finals, and everyone else has to re-compete in the Challenge Cup. The winner of the Challenge Cup moves on to the finals, creating a top ten. Those top ten teams then compete one more time to determine the winner.


Last year at Nationals Lindenwood All Girl did not score high enough in prelims to make it right on into the finals: we had to re-compete in the Challenge Cup. After a day of practicing outside in between palm trees and working to clean up our routine we competed in Challenge Cup. We did an amazing job and ended up winning the Challenge Cup. We were in tenth place going into finals with one more chance to compete. We preformed on last time on the Band Shell and gave it everything we had. We ended up winning the chorography award as well as placing third all around! Jumping from tenth to third was the biggest jump in Lindenwood History, and no All Girl team has ever placed as high. It was great to be a part of such an amazing team. I cannot wait to see what Daytona Beach brings us this year!!