Niwot Cheer competes at state

The Niwot High School cheer squad wrapped a successful competition season with a top-20 finish at this year’s Class 4A state spirit championships, held Dec. 7-8 at the Denver Coliseum.

The Cougars took 16th overall in the 30-team field, finishing just ahead of Frederick. For the second straight year, Niwot had 0.0 deductions from their final score, a testament to their focus on minimizing even small mistakes.

Niwot cheer coach Christina Ayers said after the performance that the team did “amazing.” “They rocked it. They have been working their tushies off for a month and a half on just this routine, just cleaning.”

Though it wasn't as high a finish as they’d hoped, both Ayers and head cheerleader Savannah Parrot believe the squad has come a long way from this time in 2017. After a tumultuous two years, the program has achieved a measure of stability under Ayers and co-coach Alexis Bellinger, allowing the squad to start adding depth and difficulty to their routines.

“Everything hit, and I’m so excited,” Parrot said. “This is definitely the biggest team we’ve had, and with more people there’s definitely a better visual to go along with it.”

It also allowed the squad to take a big risk that seems to have paid off, according to both Ayers and Parrot.

“We made some last minute changes to our pyramid two days ago,” Parrot said. “But I trust everyone in my group, and I trust everyone on the team, and everyone on the team trusts each other enough to literally throw ourselves on top of each other.”

The competition season may be over, but the squad will stay busy at Niwot basketball games and other school events throughout the school year. In March, the team will hold tryouts for the 2019-20 school year.