Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks
A Lemont cheerleader poses at the top a stunt during her teams routine at state cheer in Bloomington. The team rallied back from tenth place on day one to first to win this year's title.
- Whoops! They did it again. The Lemont cheer team made state history on Saturday by capturing the title in the Medium School Division at the
IHSA Competitive Cheerleading State Finals. It marked their second consecutive victory and a state-record 16th trophy for the program.
In a story that will become school legend, Lemont rebounded from a shaky opening performance in the preliminary round on Friday. The team squeezed into the finals, finishing 10th, just 0.34 points ahead of Lake Forest and trailing the Crystal Lake schools Prairie Ridge and Central. After a couple of near drops early in their routine, their performance turned timid, lacking the usual energetic vigor.
Nearly 24 hours later, the team achieved the improbable, soaring from last place to a state title. Never before in Illinois state finals history has a cheer team so dramatically reversed their fortunes, going from the lowest score in prelims to the highest in the finals.
Lemont scored 89.79 on Friday and surged to 97.50 for the title.
Providence Catholic, who tallied 94.21 in preliminaries, improved to 97.22 to secure second place. Grayslake Central took third with 93.54. The Rams led the division after the first day with 94.50.
Lemont, along with Lockport Township, Oak Forest, Sandburg, and Conant High Schools, are the only five programs to qualify for state every year since the IHSA adopted the sport. Together, these programs have maintained a storied 20-year tradition of 'making it to state'.
Medium School Division Final Results
1 Lemont 97.5
2 Providence Catholic 97.22
3 Grayslake Central 93.54
4 Morris 93.09
5 Oak Forest 92.15
6 Benet Academy 91.86
7 Highland 91.16
8 Prairie Ridge 89.7
9 Crystal Lake Central 89.24
10 Cary-Grove 89.06
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