The McMaster Cheerleading team competed at the 2004 University & Open National Cheerleading Championships at Copps Coliseum on Sunday afternoon winning the collegiate small coed/all girl division.

    In response to the increased participation at the Championship from University teams throughout the Country, a restructing of the collegiate division took place for this year’s Championship. The new two-division structure now provides the opportunity to place teams of similar make-up together in the competition. The Marauders competed in the newly established all-girl/small co-ed category with teams from Laurier, McGill, Brock, Memorial, Carelton, Ryserson, and Regina. Each team made two runs, round one being a randomly drawn order, and the second run scheduled in descending order of placing based on placing after the first round.

    In the opening round the Marauders hit a near flawless routine in front of a hometown crowd finishing with a score of 228 fourteen points ahead of the Laurier Golden Hawks. With the lead after the opening round, MAC was the last team to run in the second round. During their second run, the Marauders experienced technical difficulties as their music stopped during their performance. MAC was allowed to restart their run without penalty. On their second attempt of the second round, again the music malfunctioned, but the team persevered and continued their routine and managed to pull off the rest of the perfectly. Despite their second run challenges the Marauders still scored a 225 to secure them the all-girl/small co-ed category championship. The Marauders finished with a combined score of 456. Laurier had a second round to score of 222 and finished 16.5 points behind MAC at 439.5.

    The Marauders were favoured to win the small-co-ed/all girl division, but observers commented that the McMaster peformance had far exceeded expectations at this year’s Championship event.

    Event Pictures