Dolores County takes second at state

Dolores County takes second at state

Dec. 14, 2000

STAFF REPORT

DENVER — Dolores County High School certainly has a lot to cheer about right now.

The school’s varsity cheerleaders captured second place in a very, very close vote, losing to Holyoke in the Class 2A State Spirit Championship held last weekend in Denver.

"We actually tied after the finals," DCHS coach Kati Banks reported. "The score was so close. The judges came out and then went back in to deliberate some more. They said they had a very difficult time deciding who had won. Finally, the judges decided to give Holyoke the title based on creativity."

Making the finals were defending champ Dayspring Christian (Colorado Springs), Nucla, Dolores County, and Holyoke. For the finals, the teams had to perform their same routine over again.

In the prelims, each group had 2.5 minutes for their performance. Six judges, including one technical judge, were used to evaluate each performance. The scores from the remaining judges were used, dropping the high and low score in order to arrive at an overall team score. An established tie-breaking system was used in the case of DCHS and Holyoke at the end of the finals competition. Only the top two teams received trophies in each classification.

Holyoke actually was leading Dolores County after the preliminaries but DCHS came back strong and may have performed better in the finals, according to Banks.

"But the decision finally came down to creativity for the whole routine. I still have not received the final point scores because we left. But I’ll be interested to see them," she added.

Rhonda Blanford-Green, associate commissioner for the Colorado High School Activities Association, said the Class 2A competition was the best ever.

"This year was the biggest spirit event in Colorado with 177 schools competing for state titles. We are excited about the growth in participating schools."

Dolores County cheerleaders are Tia Wood, April Rocha, Joie Nidiffer, Chris Atkins, Char Atkins, Erin Fury, Erin Ivie, Shandra Johnson, and Krystal Neely. DCHS was coached by Banks and assisted by Tina Coker.

"The whole Western Slope was well represented," she said. "Nucla did a nice job. Although Dolores didn’t make the finals, it did very well."

Montezuma-Cortez High School competed in the Class 4A competition but did not make the finals. Mancos High School did not send a team to State.

Dolores cheerleaders included Nicole Francisco, Carissa Higgins, Ashley Ramirez, Erin Powell, Sarah Painter, and Casey Barnett. DHS was coached by Patricia Higgins. MCHS cheerleaders attending the competition included Brooke and Darcy Peterson, Christina Brengle, Audrey Jackson, Sarah Saunders, Alexis Wilkerson, Ashley Oulette, Tiffany Norris, Lisa Lopez, Christina Russell, Sarah McDonald, Savannah Wark, Therese Raica, and Ashley Tate. MCHS was coached by Margaret Trevault.

Dolores County is coming off a first-place showing (small school division) at the National Cheerleading Association Regionals (not sponsored by CHSAA) which was held in Farmington last weekend (Dec. 2). That showing automatically qualifies the girls to go to the NCA Nationals in Ardmore, Okla., in March, 2001. DCHS may or may not go because of finances. Banks said no decision has been made at this point.