Cheerleading places 4th in competition

The competition cheer team placed fourth in the Dec. 8 competition held at Cooper City High School. Competitors included Everglades, Flanagan, Hallandale, Miramar and Plantation high schools.

Sophomore Savannah MacLellan said they performed a routine containing a variety of skills including cheer, dance and stunts.

“It was one of the more stressful competitions and it was very time consuming. There was a lot of perseverance, but we could have worked harder,” MacLellan said.

Junior Gabriella Kaftan said she was pleased about coming in fourth place because of the strong performances from the other teams, but added that she wished [the team] had tried harder. Kaftan also said she recently had surgery before the competition.

“I did compete right out of surgery, so I was on a lot of medications, which made it harder to concentrate on the task at hand,” Kaftan said.

Another obstacle arose when minutes before the performance, sophomore Beth Anchell pulled her ankle while doing stretches during warm-ups.

The Wildcats are hoping to make a comeback in next year’s district competition on Jan. 10.