2012 Cheerleading National Championship

[TSteven]

"Championship #19 is coming home!"
UK Cheerleading wins record 19th UCA National Championship

For a record 19th time, the Wildcats won the UCA national title at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. UK finished ahead of second-place Alabama, who ended a streak of three consecutive Kentucky titles in 2011.

Final Results

1. Kentucky
2. Alabama
3. Central Florida
4. Memphis
5. Tennessee
6. Mississippi
7. Hawaii
8. Minnesota
9. Ohio State
10. Kansas
11. Louisiana State
12. Mississippi State
13. Cincinnati
14. Western Kentucky
15. Florida State

[carnation]

Yay, Kentucky! S-E-C!

Hey! I used to coach 2 of those squads.

[groovypq]

Originally Posted by carnation

Hey! I used to coach 2 of those squads.

Really?!! *bows*

[KSUViolet06]

Cheer is big in our family (I didn't cheer but my mom has coached competitive HS and all stars in the past) so we follow college cheer.

At this point if you compete in this division at UCA, the real competition is for 2nd and 3rd because UK is coming home with that top spot (they've only ever been upset by UCF, after having their only fall on a pyramid at UCA in like 12 years. Just so happened that UCF had no mistakes that year.)

I think it's a testament to just how deep the cheer talent pool they attract is. Their kids come from the top all star programs and high schools in their state and the country.

[ThetaPrincess24]

A Theta alum from my chapter has a daughter on the Western Kentucky squad!

I'm glad to see two Kentucky schools and 6 SEC schools on this list!

[christiangirl]

WOW! I never followed cheer (my high school didn't have any and my college weren't a competiting squad) but I'm sad I missed this. It's like Bring It On...but for real.

Kentucky's winning performance: http://youtu.be/-bYpV-FTyDE

[ThetaPrincess24]

I only saw one major flaw at the beginning. the first set of backhand springs a girl to the left fell. Aside from that the level of difficulty looks rather high! I'm glad they won!

[ree-Xi]

I love watching cheer competitions on television. The flyers also impress me with how high in the air they get. Amazing!!

[psusue]

I watched the top 3 perfomances from that link and was just amazed. They make it look effortless to be lifted like that. I think this video is what brought if home for me was this though. Just watching two people do all those lifts and flips was amazing, and you can really see the acrobatics of it in slow motion. You can also see how hard the lifter has to work to keep her balanced. Then multiply that by 7, all at the same time, all perfectly synchronized. I just can't imagine being so talented at that.

[KSUViolet06]

The "handstand to hands" at about 2:07 in Uk's video is pretty amazing. High difficulty there.

[Ch2tf]

Except for that tumbling fall, UK's performance was pretty clean. I watched a good number of the other videos (All-Girl and Co-ed) and overall I was unimpressed. I cheered in high school & college (games and competitive) and none of the "Big Moves" have changed AT ALL. The pyramids, transitions, even the handstand to hands are all very old at this point (my last year of college cheering was in 2003).

I guess there isn't too much more that can be done, but I was a little surprised and disappointed about the lack of novelty.

[carnation]

I wonder how much more can be done anyway? There are so many safety rules in place, like how high a pyramid can go, and thank God for that because things were getting out of hand by the nineties. There have been so many horrible injuries!

[groovypq]

I coach college cheerleading, and carnation's right - with the safety rules that are in place (and rightfully so), there's not much more that can be done. The variety that you see now is moreso in the transitions than the pyramids/partner stunts/baskets themselves.

[FHwku]

go cats
go tops